Dr. George Segall, the chief of the Department of Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care Systems' nuclear medicine department and a Stanford University professor, has assumed the 2011-2012 presidency of the Society of Nuclear Medicine, while Frederic H. Fahey, director of nuclear medicine physics at Children's Hospital Boston and a Harvard Medical School professor, was named president-elect.

Dr. Gary L. Dillehay, professor of radiology with Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, was also elected as vice president-elect.

SNM announced the new roster of officers at its annual meeting in San Antonio, Texas, which runs June 4-8.

Segall, who has published more than 50 peer-reviewed articles and six book chapters, joined the Palo Alto VA health system in 1986, becoming chief of nuclear medicine services in 1998. He has been a radiology professor at Stanford since 2001.

At SNM, Segall has served on the board of directors, chaired an education commission and was president of the PET Center of Excellence. He's also held leadership positions with the society's northern California chapter.

In his new role as president, Segall said he would work to promote the appropriate use of nuclear medicine and molecular imaging, try to harmonize global standards in the industry and tackle comparative effectiveness research.

"SNM has made a great start in determining the necessary steps needed to move ahead in assessing the effectiveness of nuclear medicine and molecular imaging," Segall said in a statement. "I look forward to continuing this work during my term."

President-elect Fahey has served as director of nuclear medicine physics with Children's Hospital Boston since 2003, and has worked at Harvard Medical School since 2004. He has also held academic positions with Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C. and Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, D.C. He has written 54 journal articles and 15 book chapters, and serves as a consultant for the International Atomic Energy Agency.

As president-elect, Fahey said he would help launch the SNM's Image Wisely campaign to lower radiation dosage for nuclear medicine.

"Keeping the radiation exposure to our patients as low as reasonably possible while providing excellent clinical studies is critical," he said in a statement.

More Voices