ASNC

“All of us – physicians, technologists and industry – need to work together to educate referring physicians, payers and policymakers about the clinical value of nuclear cardiology to ensure continued patient access.” Dennis A. Calnon, MD, MASNC, ASNC President

FAIRFAX, Va. (PRWEB)
January 04, 2022

Dennis Calnon, MD, MASNC, nuclear cardiologist and director of cardiac imaging at the OhioHealth Riverside Methodist Hospital in Columbus, was installed as president of the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology (ASNC) for 2022. Dr. Calnon set the stage for his term at the recent ASNC2021 Annual Scientific Session, where his President-elect Address assessed the state of nuclear cardiology and presented the specialty’s practitioners with a call to action.

“The state of nuclear cardiology is very, very strong,” Dr. Calnon announced. He cited the unrivaled versatility and feasibility of myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) and the trust the modality has earned from clinicians for guiding their patients’ care. He also noted the growing recognition of cardiac PET; the “game-changer” role that myocardial blood flow measurement is poised to take; and emerging applications for MPI for diagnosing cardiac amyloidosis, cardias sarcoidosis and infection.

Regarding threats the specialty may face in the future, Dr. Calnon emphasized ASNC’s strengths and highlighted the Society’s #PatientFirst philosophy. “ASNC is and always has been a patient-first organization,” Dr. Calnon said, “and ASNC’s priority is and always will be the patient, not the test.”

He went on to challenge nuclear cardiology practitioners to respond to a two-part call to action. First, he said, “All of us – physicians, technologists and industry – need to work together to educate referring physicians, payers and policymakers about the clinical value of nuclear cardiology to ensure continued patient access.”

The second part of Dr. Calnon’s call to action was a push for ongoing lab modernization. Drawing on key takeaways from ASNC’s Virtual Reading Room webinars, which he moderated in 2021, Dr. Calnon urged nuclear cardiologists to keep their equipment current; embrace routine use of attenuation correction, stress-first/only imaging and coronary calcium assessment; incorporate myocardial blood flow measurement with SPECT; and examine the value of cardiac PET for their patients.

“I know it’s much easier to simply stay with what we’re comfortable with and perform our studies the way we’ve been doing them for years,” he said, “… but we need to modernize in order for our field to stay successful in the years ahead.”

Pointing to ASNC’s various online resource centers and educational programs, he pledged the Society’s support as the field takes on both challenges. “We can do amazing things if we all work together,” he concluded.

Dr. Calnon earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering from The Pennsylvania State University and his medical degree from the Penn State College of Medicine. He completed his internal medicine residency at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and both his cardiology fellowship and a nuclear cardiology research fellowship at The University of Virginia School of Medicine.

He joined ASNC in 1996 and over the years has participated in many of the Society’s initiatives. He was a longtime member of the Society’s Community-based Practice Committee, which evolved into the current Health Policy Committee; and was an associate editor of the Journal of Nuclear Cardiology with section editor responsibility for the popular Images that Teach feature. In 2016, Dr. Calnon was honored with the Master of ASNC (MASNC) designation, which recognizes distinguished leaders in nuclear cardiology who also contribute to ASNC by holding senior volunteer positions.

Dr. Calnon has directed or co-directed ASNC’s signature “Nuclear Cardiology Today” symposium for over a decade. He will co-direct the new virtual program Nuclear Cardiology NOW: Strategies for Optimization, Efficiency and Productivity on March 11-13, 2022.

As this year’s president, Dr. Calnon will lead ASNC’s current Executive Council, which also includes President-elect Mouaz Al-Mallah, MD, MSc, FASNC; Vice President Lawrence Phillips, MD, FASNC; Secretary Panithaya Chareonthaitawee, MD; Treasurer Karthikeyan Ananthasubramaniam, MD, FASNC; Immediate Past President Randall C. Thompson, MD, MASNC; and Once-removed Past President Sharmila Dorbala, MD, MPH, MASNC.

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About the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology

For more than 25 years, the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology and its more than 4,500 members have been improving cardiovascular outcomes through image-guided patient management. As the only society dedicated solely to the field of nuclear cardiology, ASNC establishes standards for excellence in cardiovascular imaging through the development of clinical guidelines, professional medical education, advocacy and research development. ASNC provides peer-reviewed original articles through its official publication Journal of Nuclear Cardiology and operates the nation’s first noninvasive cardiac imaging registry, ImageGuide Registry®, to benchmark quality and improve patient care. For more information, visit http://www.asnc.org.

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