SNMMI announced in February the launch of a program offering nuclear medicine facilities the opportunity to qualify as designated and certified Centers of Excellence in Radiopharmaceutical Therapy. The centers will meet strict regulatory, training, qualification, experience, and performance criteria to help assure patients, their families, referring physicians, and payers that rigorous procedures are in place and followed, leading to appropriate patient selection and outcomes from radiopharmaceutical therapy. “Our goal with this program is to ensure that patients have reliable access to high-quality radiopharmaceutical therapy that is well integrated into their pathways of care and delivered by highly qualified therapy teams at technically qualified sites,” said Richard Wahl, MD, SNMMI President. “These teams will be led by physicians appropriately trained in nuclear medicine who will act as ‘nuclear oncologists’, working across disciplines to provide the right treatment with the most advanced and evidence-based approaches tailored to the needs of each patient.”
Designation as an SNMMI-recognized Radiopharmaceutical Therapy Center of Excellence will be a visible and prestigious sign that each site: carefully evaluates patients for suitability for radiopharmaceutical therapy, including in-person assessments in a clinical setting; that treatment providers are suitably qualified by training, experience, appropriate board certification, and continuing medical education to deliver the relevant radiopharmaceutical therapy and to use relevant imaging methods and equipment to assess patients before, during, and after treatment; that patients will receive follow-up care with deep engagement by the treating physicians and/or the broader therapy team; and that total patient care will be supported by a team of experts in nuclear medicine and molecular imaging, pathology, endocrinology, urology, social work, physics, and other relevant care domains. Three levels of designation will be awarded to qualifying sites.
Registered Therapy Site designation is intended mainly for those sites that administer only 1 type of radiopharmaceutical therapy. This designation does not require a registration fee.
Clinical Radiopharmaceutical Therapy Center of Excellence designation will be awarded to sites with experience administering multiple radiopharmaceutical therapies and at which procedure frequency is sufficiently high in relevant imaging methods and therapy procedures to assure continued excellence as evidenced by experience. Care teams at these sites will include physicians certified to read nuclear medicine studies and certified nuclear medicine technologists. Detailed site requirements include specifications for board and professional certifications for team members and modality/technology access.
Comprehensive Radiopharmaceutical Therapy Center of Excellence designation will indicate sites that are leading growth in the field. These centers will have experience administering multiple radiopharmaceutical therapies, supported by established care teams in at least 2 specific disease areas. These sites will also be actively involved in radiopharmaceutical therapy research, patient education, and provision of quality improvement and continuing medical education. Detailed requirements for the members of care teams and their appropriate certification and training are also included.
All 3 designated site types will be listed on the SNMMI Therapy Centers of Excellence portal, accessible to patients seeking treatment. Designations are valid for 2 years. Sites meeting the Center of Excellence criteria will receive certificates and door/window stickers with the designation. “It is our hope that this effort establishes a widely respected ‘gold standard’ by which prospective patients, colleagues in other disciplines, and the wider community can recognize quality and continued excellence in the rapidly advancing field of radiopharmaceutical therapy,” said Dr. Wahl.
Additional information and detailed requirements for each type of designation are available at: https://www.snmmi.org/RPTCoE.
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- © 2022 by the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging.