Nuclear Medicine education has taken a giant step forward with the launch of the Society of Nuclear Medicine Virtual Library. As of August 15, sessions from the recent SNM Annual Meeting are available in a webcast format that combines synchronized audio, video, slides and transcripts with continuing education credit.
By the end of August, nineteen sessions are expected to be online and operational. Sessions for the inaugural webcasts range from Cutting Edge of Clinical Nuclear Medicine (including Breast Cancer in PET and PET fusion imaging) to Nuclear Cardiology in 2001, The Sentinel Nodes in Surgical Oncology, and Applications of Radioimmunotherapy.
According to SNM Director of Education, Brenda Johnson, new technologies have made this kind of presentation possible.
“The virtual library will help us meet our primary mission: education. Not only does it represent the first time that leaders throughout the nuclear medicine field have been available in as concentrated a manner, but it is a way for us to increase our educational outreach to professionals,” she stated.
According to Johnson, viewers will be able to search and target areas of each webcast through a keyword search. A physician or technologist will be able to target only those parts of a session in which they are particularly interested. Two tracks from the meeting: a physician/scientist track and a technologist track are being offered.
“Our plans call for an extensive library of sessions, including those from our expanded upcoming Mid-Winter education program, and additional sessions including posters from the Annual Meeting,” noted Johnson.
Webcasts will be on the SNM Virtual Library site for a year. The SNM Virtual Library, which is produced for the SNM by DigiScript, will be available for a yearly subscription of $25 for members, and $40 for non-SNM-members and will allow unlimited access to the site.
The sessions will also be available for purchase on CD Rom ($125/$175 physician member/nonmember) or ($35/$50 technologist member/nonmember). Continuing Education credits, however, will only be available to online subscribers. Audio tapes of previous meetings will continue to be available. To subscribe go to http://www.snm.org
The Society of Nuclear Medicine is an international scientific and professional organization of more than 13,000 members dedicated to promoting the science, technology and practical applications of nuclear medicine. SNM is based in Reston, Virginia.