The mission of the Advanced Associate Council is to:

• Aid those who are interested in developing a Nuclear Medicine Advanced Associate program at their facility.
• Support the practice and policy needs of the NMAA and other areas of technologist advanced practice.
• Aid with activities associated with nurturing and growing the NMAA, including effecting the necessary culture change to allow this designation to function properly.
• NMAA Flyer 

The primary mission of Advanced Associate Council (AAC) is to promote the Nuclear Medicine Advanced Associates (NMAAs) as physician extenders in nuclear medicine. NMAAs are valuable members of the nuclear medicine clinical team. With advanced training through a master’s level program and advanced certification through the Nuclear Medicine Technology Certification Board (NMTCB), the NMAAs are able to fill the gap in the nuclear medicine department from pre-testing assessment and procedural supervision to preliminary report preparation, allowing the nuclear medicine physicians and nuclear radiologists the freedom to commit to the final interpretation of the diagnostic procedures and the flexibility in supervision of therapeutic procedures while maintaining the hands-on approach to patient care and fostering clinical quality.

NMAAs currently working in the field have seen the evolution of the profession and are taking new exciting roles that had not been previously envisioned.  NMAAs have new and valuable roles in therapy, PET/CT, PET/MRI, expanded duties in procedural supervision and interpretation, clinical management and leadership, and patient interaction that free the nuclear medicine physicians to handle the increasing demands of the busy practice setting. NMAAs may facilitate research efforts as well. Overall, NMAAs can be instrumental in delivering more valuable nuclear medicine patient care.     

The efforts are underway to seek national recognition as a middle level care giver from key medical organizations. Currently there is much interest from the molecular imaging and general populations in the possibility of a new NMAA educational program, hopefully to be implemented within the next two years. 

We encourage any and all interested individuals to sign up for the NMAA session at the SNMMI annual meeting in New Orleans, LA in June 2020, and to contact the SNMMI NMAA Council leadership if you have questions or comments about this exciting career opportunity.

Darko Pucar, MD, PhD

NMAA Flyer

How to Become a Member
Membership in the Advanced Associate Council is limited to members of the SNMMI. Membership can be attained by indicating the desire to join during the annual renewal of the SNMMI membership or by filing an application with the Secretary of the council.

Payment of Dues
Membership in the AAC requires payment of dues in the amount of $15/year. Dues are paid to SNMMI and will be due on October 1st of each year.

Benefits of Membership:
Membership makes you a part of a professional group within the SNMMI that:

Provides continuing education for professionals in the various areas relating to Advanced Assoiate through sponsored symposia and continuing education courses. Each year the AAC puts on Continuing Education Courses on topics of interest to professionals in NMAA.

Provides a forum and a mechanism for discussion and dissemination of information relating to the Radiopharmaceutical Sciences. The AAC members receive periodic Newsletters and electronic mailings containing information on professional activities, government issues, and a host of other topics related to Advanced Associate. Members will soon have access to AAC Web pages, which will contain timely and archived information relating to a variety of topics of the AAC.

Provides expertise in the NMAA to SNMMI leadership and to groups outside of SNMMI seeking such expertise. The AAC has representation in a number of governance groups within SNMMI, including the Committee on Councils and the House of Delegates.

Learn more about the specific benefits the AAC council has to offer by emailing memberinfo@snmmi.org.