From the June 2018 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine

SM: I should answer this question with more concrete data, but my impression is that it is more stringent, but it applies to any new technologies. If you look back 20 or 30 years ago, it was certainly easier. We have to establish not only safety and efficacy, but also value to the patients to get reimbursed. This is the right framework moving forward. It’s not just bureaucracy, it’s also the outcome-based evidence needed to get reimbursement. However, we should think about a pragmatic approach to achieve this.

HCB News: Is it possible that the reimbursement approval is more difficult because there’s more of a challenge to make substantial leaps in patient benefits from new procedures now? That there are smaller incremental improvements being introduced today?
SM: To make substantial leaps, it requires not only extraordinary ideas or discoveries, but also the availability of funding that allows high-risk research and development. Because of the constraint in national healthcare finance, and risk aversion by industries, incremental improvements are inevitable, but also necessary. We pursue both groundbreaking innovations and continuing refinements and improvements of current technologies.


HCB News: Do you believe the push for outcome-based medicine will hurt or help nuclear medicine in the short-term? In the long-term?
SM: It is an iterative process to promote and de-promote medical procedures based on outcome evidence that becomes available through well-designed research. This is not unique to nuclear medicine and molecular imaging. SNMMI is very fortunate that there are many members who are actively working on the development of better diagnostic methods and better treatments through vigorous efforts of validation. However, a bigger challenge may be the difficulty in attributing the value of imaging diagnosis to the patient’s final outcome. There are active efforts ongoing in health services research.

HCB News: Can you offer a prediction on where you believe nuclear medicine will be in 10 years?
SM: Nuclear medicine and molecular imaging will continue to advance discovery and innovation, and translation of such advancements to patient care. Some of the new technologies we are investigating now, such as precision theranostics, will be implemented in routine clinical practice in less than 10 years. Molecular imaging will continue to help discover the pathogenesis and pathophysiology of disease, and support better definition of diseases and therapeutic development. The appropriate use of imaging and the care pathway will be defined better in our practice of medicine. Looking at worldwide activities in nuclear medicine and molecular imaging, the field will continue to be one of the most exciting medical disciplines.

June 2018 Magazine

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