Last year, the Martinos Center’s Regan Butterfield was asked to serve as the Education co-chair for the Clinical Trials Network (CTN) for the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI). In a recent conversation, Butterfield, a research nuclear medicine technologist in the Center, told us about the work of the Education committee and her role as co-chair.
Representing 19,000 nuclear and molecular imaging professionals, SNMMI seeks to improve human health by advancing molecular imaging and therapy. It approaches this goal through meetings and other events, advocacy and research efforts including the Clinical Trials Network, which helps facilitate effective use of molecular imaging radiopharmaceuticals in clinical trials.
The CTN Education committee plays an important role in determining what information is disseminated to the SNMMI general community and how: for example, as webinars or continuing education credits. “Now, instead of attending or presenting at the annual and mid-winter SNMMI meeting,” Butterfield says, “I get to help decide what topics get presented and who the presenters should be.”
Butterfield has had connections with the Education committee for over a decade, so when the outgoing co-chair was preparing for a new position as associate director for the CTN, she messaged her and asked if she would consider joining the Education committee and taking over the role of co-chair.
Her experience thus far has been tremendously rewarding, especially helping shape understandings of cutting-edge technologies through the Education committee’s many dissemination efforts.
“I’m excited to share all the things I’ve learned and am continuing to learn in dynamic PET/MR imaging,” she says. “Not many nuclear medicine technologists get the chance to do PET/MR research and I’m excited I have a way to share it with all the techs who belong to the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging.”