High Country continues to attract and blend experts from academia and industry, with leaders in medical specialties, the regulatory agencies and health care researchers in an informal setting to facilitate dialog and an exchange of ideas. The meeting consists of six to seven hours of structured sessions per day (8 sessions total). In between sessions, roundtable discussions will be held and there are ample opportunities for independent meetings and networking. In addition, two of this year’s sessions will be livestreamed to a virtual audience. The 2023 meeting, with anticipated attendance of 100 participants, promises to open avenues and opportunities of collaboration on a variety of issues important to the nuclear medicine and molecular imaging community.
Over the course of four days, the High Country Nuclear Medicine Conference will offer 27 hours of content.
Click the following link to view a PDF of the 2023 HCNMC Program as of February 22, 2023.
Saturday, March 11, 2023
6:30 AM – 7:00 AM Breakfast with Vendors
7:00 AM – 9:30 AM Session: Alpha Therapy
The talks will discuss the current status of alpha therapy, including availability and what agents are likely to be approved in the near future.
Session Chair: Andreas Kjaer, MD, PhD, DMSc, MBA
Co-Chair: Michael Graham, MD, PhD
Session Topics:
Isotope Availability Now and in the Future – Focus on Alphas
Speaker: Roy Brown, MBA
VMT-alpha-NET – why does it have to be alpha?
Speaker: Frances Johnson, MD
211At – an Ideal Alpha Emitter?
Chair: Andreas Kjaer, MD, PhD
1:00 PM – 3:00 PM Roundtable: General Oncology
We will discuss the latest papers on FAPI, covering both diagnostic and therapeutic applications. Other topics may be discussed, depending on participant interests.
Lead: Michael Graham, MD, PhD
4:00 PM – 4:30 PM Hal O’Brien Award Talk
Scheduled Topic:
Integration of theranostics into cancer patient management
Speaker: Amir Iravani, MD
4:30 PM- 7:30 PM Session: Prostate Update (CE Credits)
In this session, we will discuss the role of nuclear medicine in evaluating and treating patients with advanced prostate cancer. We will review the appropriate use criteria for PSMA PET/CTs, the use of radioligand therapy in the clinic, and the future of theranostics. We as well discuss the critical steps in opening a theranostic center.
Session Chair: Bital Savir-Baruch, MD
Co-Chair: Michael Graham, MD, PhD
Session Topics:
PSMA PET- Appropriate use criteria and patient selection for radioligand therapy
Speaker: Hossein Jadvar, MD, PhD, MPH, MBA, FACNM, FSNMMI
Therapy of prostate cancer with Lu177-PSMA
Speaker: Tom Hope, MD
Radioligand therapy Beyond Vision and TheraP trials- Review of clinic trials for Prostate cancer
Speaker: Vikas Prasad, MD
How to build and design a Theranostic center
Chair: Bital Savir-Baruch, MD, FACNM
Sunday, March 12, 2023
6:30 AM – 7:00 AM Breakfast with Vendors
7:00 AM – 9:30 AM Session: Cutting Edge Nuclear Cardiology (CE Credits)
This session will outline the contemporary role for cardiac PET and SPECT in disease diagnosis and risk stratification. The speakers will highlight the latest advances in clinical nuclear cardiology which will enable nuclear Cardiqoilogy to retain a prominent role in the management of patients with known or suspected coronary artery disease.
Session Chair: Rob Miller
Co-Chair: Dan Berman, MD
Session Topics:
Guidelines for Chest Pain Imaging: Where do SPECT and PET fit in?
Speaker: Dennis Calnon, MD, FACC, FASE, MASNC, FSCCT
PET Myocardial Perfusion Imaging and Flow:
Speaker: Krishna K. Patel, MD, MSc
F-18 Flurpiradaz Perfusion Imaging; the Time is Now
Speaker: Dan Berman, MD
F-18 Sodium fluoride; applications in coronary disease
Speaker: David Newby, PhD
Enhancing SPECT: flows, CAC, quantitation
Speaker: Robert Miller
1:00 PM – 3:00 PM Roundtable: Discussing the Future of Nuclear Cardiology
During this interactive session, speakers will discuss the future landscape for nuclear Cardiology. This forward-looking session will provide an overview of emerging applications including potential future directions for cardiac PET, the important role for nuclear Cardiology in infiltrative cardiomyopathies, and novel PET radiotracers with non-coronary applications.
Lead: Rob Miller
Co-Lead: Dan Berman, MD
Topics:
Where to take cardiac PET after CAC and flows
Speaker: Piotr Slomka, PhD
Hybrid imaging in cardiac amyloidosis and sarcoidosis
Speaker: Robert Miller
Emerging novel tracers including GP1, FAPI, and valvular applications of F18
Speaker: David Newby, PhD
4:00 PM – 5:40 PM Session: Instrumentation
We will review the latest advances in the nuclear medicine instrumentation, including total body PET, digital and other novel PET designs as well as latest generation of SPECT/CT scanners.
Session Chair: Piotr Slomka, PhD
Co-Chair: Ramsey Badawi, PhD
Scheduled Topics:
PhD Whole Body PET
Speaker: Ramsey Badawi, PhD
Digital PET
Speaker: Keisha McCall, PhD
Latest developments in digital CZT SPECT
Speaker: Benjamin Auer, PhD
Latest SPECT developments
Speaker: Hans Vija
5:40 PM – 6:30 PM Hal O’Brien Award Talk
Scheduled Topics:
Towards the routine clinical adoption of whole-body and total-body multi-parametric PET using cost-effective imaging technologies
Speaker: Nicolas Karakatsanis, PhD
Uncovering Tumor Biology through Molecular Imaging
Speaker: Patricia Ribeiro Pereira PhD
7:00 PM – 9:00 PM Sunday Night Dinner & Hal O’Brien Rising Star Award Ceremony. Open to all in-person attendees with meeting registration. Additional tickets available for guests.
Monday, March 13, 2023
6:30 AM – 7:00 AM Breakfast with Vendors
7:00 AM – 9:30 AM Session: Policy and Regulatory Updates
Federal legislative and regulatory activity related to nuclear medicine remains robust, with recent significant developments such as passage of new drug pricing legislation within the Inflation Reduction Act. A number of important regulatory initiatives have been or will be underway within the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The mid-term elections have result in split control of the Congress. This session will provide updates regarding an overview of ongoing legislative and regulatory changes impacting the nuclear medicine sector.
Session Chair: Ira Goldman, MA
Co-Chair: Cathy Cutler
Scheduled Topics:
SNMMI Update
Speaker: Cathy Cutler
TBD
Speaker: Scott Bartley, MD
FIND Act update
Speaker: Ira Goldman, MA
PAMA/AUC Update
Speaker: Kathy Flood
Current NRC nuclear medicine topics including Emerging Medical Technologies
Speaker: Christian Einberg
1:00 PM – 3:00 PM Roundtable: Barriers to Access/Equity & Diversity in Clinical Trials/Barriers to a more diverse workforce
We will discuss current Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion activities in nuclear medicine and molecular imaging as well as possible ways to increase diversity in the nuclear medicine community.
Lead: Thomas Ng, MD
4:00 PM – 7:30 PM Session: Neuroimaging
In this session we will discuss the use and role of PET tracers (beta amyloid and tau) in pivotal late stage Alzheimer‘s Disease (AD) clinical trials, as well as use and development of PET tracers in non-AD neurodegenerative diseases.
Session Chair: Andrew Stephens, MD, PhD
Co-Chair: Maria Ponisio, MD
Scheduled Topics:
Update on AD clinical trials and the role of imaging biomarkers
Speaker: Mike Pontecorvo, PhD
Relationship between tau deposition and the functional network architecture of the brain
Speaker: Nicolai Franzmeier, PhD
Neuroimaging in CTE/TBI
Speaker: Mike Alosco, CTE
Imaging primary tauopathies and movement disorders
Speaker: Andrew Stephens, MD, PhD
New tracers for imaging neuroinflammation and tau
Speaker: Neil Vasdev, PhD
Tuesday, March 14, 2023
6:30 AM – 7:00 AM Breakfast with Vendors
7:00 AM – 9:30 AM Session: AI/Machine Learning
Latest AI developments applied to nuclear medicine will be presented with examples in nuclear cardiology including the clinical perspective, PET brain imaging, and automated segmentation of oncological images.
Session Chair: Piotr Slomka, PhD
Co-Chair: Joyita Dutta, PhD
Scheduled Topics:
AI-Enabled PET Imaging for Alzheimer’s Disease
Speaker: Joyita Dutta, PhD
AI-powered nuclear cardiology
Chair: Piotr Slomka, PhD
How AI can help cardiovascular imaging clinicians
Speaker: Rob Miller, MD
Addressing clinical challenges in prostate cancer with an automated AI-based analysis of PSMA prostate images
Speaker: Sai Duriseti, MD
9:30 AM – 10:45 AM Roundtable: AI
Discuss future direction of artificial intelligence applications in nuclear medicine focusing on potential deployment and clinical, legal, and ethical acceptance issues.
4:00 PM – 7:30 PM Session: Controversies in Thyroid Cancer Therapy
Although we have been treating thyroid cancer with I-131 for 70 years, we still cannot agree on the best way.
Session Chair: Michael Wissmeyer, MD, PhD
Co-Chair: Mike Graham, MD, PhD
Scheduled Topics:
Recombinant human thyrotropin versus thyroid hormone withdrawal in the management of differentiated thyroid cancer: examining the evidence
Speaker: Jennifer Kwak, MD
Update on the 2022 Joint SNMMI-EANM Thyroid Cancer Guidelines
Speaker: Anca Avram, MD
Radioiodine in differentiated thyroid carcinoma, an ever hot topic
Speaker: Michael Wissmeyer, MD, PhD, slides provided by Michael Kreissl, MD
The Swiss consensus in low risk thyroid carcinoma
Speaker: Michael Wissmeyer, MD, PhD