Letter from the EANM President
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Jolanta Kunikowska
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Dear EANM Members, Dear Colleagues and Friends,
I had hoped that my second letter to you would be sent under better circumstances, but unfortunately the COVID-19 pandemic, its associated lockdowns and personal restrictions, not to mention the resulting professional challenges, are still dominating our everyday lives. All of us are desperately missing personal meetings and contacts.
For the EANM, this year started with a thorough project and activity evaluation conducted together with my President-Elect, fully backed by our fellow Board members. We are proud to be leading a thriving, financially stable and sustainably-run association. However, decisions on priorities had to be taken in order to ensure that this continues to be the case in future, so some activities have been postponed to times with a higher degree of sustainability. Although the pandemic is disruptive, my goal as President is to keep you personally updated, so you can expect to receive a letter from me every 4 months from now on.
Besides our regular newsletters, the EANM also distributes information to you, our community, through social media, a channel which is seeing ever-growing interest. Join the conversation via @officialEANM to stay tuned, and follow, like, share and spread the EANM content in your community – thank you!
Your support is key in disseminating the EANM message
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As you probably remember, one of my personal aims is to strengthen the role of women in our specialty. I am proud to announce the approval of the Women´s Empowerment initiative, or EANM WE for short. Led by Laura Evangelista (IT), a soon-to-be-created WE Task Force aims to increase the participation of women in nuclear medicine as well as within the EANM. We are looking for a dynamic team of women to help with the creation of networking and mentoring opportunities for the female NM community. You are all invited to check out the open call and send us your application by May 9, 2021!
Under the leadership of our Education Chair Paola A. Erba, definitely a role model for our WE initiative, ESMIT’s progress in the last few months has been truly outstanding. Breaking all previous attendee records, the live webinar series are now hosted on our brand-new eLearning platform. Webinars can be watched live or on demand, on your PC or mobile device – whatever your personal preference is. Check out the access plan and the ESMIT programme to make sure you are not missing out on our excellent education opportunities.
In March, we had our traditional spring meeting with our National Delegates, in which we also discussed the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on nuclear medicine departments in Europe. The National Delegates provided data via an online survey, which will enable the EANM to publish an editorial on this topic looking at the situation in more than 30 of our member countries. Thanks are due to all National Delegates, but particularly to Ana Paula Moreira from Portugal, who is leading this effort. We will update you when the editorial is published!
What else is there? Well, there is also a lot happening on the policy and networking front. My friends from the EANM Board and I are actively engaged in:
- networking activities and discussions with pan-European organisations such as EIBIR (European Institute for Biomedical Imaging Research), ECO (European Cancer Organisation), IAEA, OECD, NEA (Nuclear Energy Agency), BioMedical Alliance Europe as well as with industry partners, e.g. NMEu (former AIPES, Nuclear Medicine Europe – the industry association);
- collaboration and exchange with sister societies (international NM associations such e.g. SNMMI, AZSNM and JSNM) as well as with clinical societies such as ETA, ESC, EAU and ENETS;
- involvement in various EU tenders: QuADRANT – on quality and safety through clinical audits; and various projects on supply of radioisotopes;
- consultancy services and exchanges on the EC initiative SAMIRA – an action plan for the strategic agenda for medical ionizing radiation applications.
As you can see, despite all the challenges, the EANM continues to be of service to its community. I would like to express my sincerest thanks to all our volunteers out there who are still committing their valuable time to the EANM: from Committee members to National Delegates, not to mention Working Group members, authors, reviewers, panellists, moderators and presenters – the list is endless. We are sincerely indebted to you all!
You can expect my next update at the end of the summer. Until then, please feel free to contact me at any time.
Yours,
Jolanta Kunikowska
EANM President 2021-2022