Leading nuclear medicine organizations collaborate to streamline PET accreditation
A group of international nuclear medicine organizations is banding together to push for a standardized accreditation framework for PET imaging systems.
The Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging’s Clinical Trials Network (SNMMI-CTN), the Australasian Radiopharmaceutical Trials Network (ARTnet) and the European Association of Nuclear Medicine Forschungs GmbH (EARL) have jointly endorsed a unified framework “to standardize and harmonize quantitative PET imaging worldwide.” The organizations believe the move will improve reproducibility, reduce duplication and support more reliable decision-making in PET research and patient care. This would address widespread variability in these areas, reduce costs and improve the quality and reliability of data produced during PET research.
In a joint statement, the groups indicated that "universal adoption of the proposed framework will provide significant advantages for all stakeholders.”
Benefits of the framework include:
Streamlined protocols, resulting in a simpler, universal manual.
Lower costs due to fewer phantom scans and reduced testing. This also will accelerate timelines.
Universal performance criteria for systems across all regions and trials.
Improved data quality that is consistent and reproducible.
Expedited site accreditation thanks to validated protocols, which speed up the onboarding process.
Fewer testing responsibilities for sponsors who lack imaging experience.
The announcement indicates that contrast recovery coefficient-based metrics already are in place in some data analyses and image quality reports. The trio expects the full transition will be complete in January.
“The unified PET system accreditation is a pivotal step toward truly global harmonization in quantitative PET imaging,” the joint statement reads. “Through this collaboration, SNMMI, ARTnet and EANM are laying the groundwork for a future where data from any accredited scanner, anywhere in the world, can be trusted and compared with confidence.”
In addition to her background in journalism, Hannah also has patient-facing experience in clinical settings, having spent more than 12 years working as a registered rad tech. She began covering the medical imaging industry for Innovate Healthcare in 2021.