Letter from the President

Jason S. Lewis, Ph.D.
President of WMIS 2014–2015

Professor Jason S. Lewis is the Emily Tow Jackson Chair in Oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) and currently serves as Vice Chair for Research and as the Chief of the Radiochemistry & Imaging Sciences Service in MSKCC’s Department of Radiology.

Dear Colleagues:

The World Molecular Imaging Society (WMIS) is a dynamic educational and scientific organization, led by prominent world experts, researchers, laboratory professionals and clinicians focused on advancing the field of molecular imaging. In 2015, my intention was to guide WMIS in embracing novel molecular imaging science, validating utilization and shepherding new technologies, concepts and applications into mainstream patient care. To accomplish this we aligned our strategies and meetings with national and international initiatives in healthcare as well as programs that support our membership.

The Precision Medicine Initiative

During the State of the Union Address on January 30, 2015, President Obama unveiled a $215 million proposal, Precision Medicine Initiative: Data Driven Treatments as Unique as Your Own Body to be included in his fiscal year (FY) 2016 budget request to Congress. The purpose of the initiative is to support and foster the goals of precision medicine. more…

This announcement clearly spotlights the theme of the World Molecular Imaging Society’s Annual Congress, “Precision Medicine… Visualized”.  The annual WMIC meeting brings together professionals from diverse backgrounds to share information, technologies and viewpoints for the betterment of their own research programs and ultimately, to improve patient care.  The theme of the WMIC 2015, Precision Medicine… Visualized, was chosen because of molecular imaging’s tremendous potential to advance precision medicine in many critical human diseases; more accurately, the future success of precision medicine depends upon molecular imaging.

I believe this important announcement reinforces our mission and further aligns our field, our society and our molecular imaging research. Unique across all facets of clinical imaging, molecular imaging excels at visualizing and quantifying the cellular and molecular underpinnings of diseases on a patient-by-patient basis. Molecular imaging now provides new ways to detect disease at early, potentially curable stages, identify patients likely to respond to certain treatments, and predict a patient’s response to therapy early in the treatment cycle.

A few things we accomplished this year

The Journal Molecular Imaging and Biology – The official Journal of WMIS, ESMI, FASMI

Molecular Imaging and Biology presents original research contributions on the utilization of molecular imaging in problems of relevance in biology and medicine. The primary objective of the journal is to provide a forum for the discovery of molecular mechanisms of health and disease through the use of imaging techniques. I want to share with you the incredible progress Ray Gibson, Editor-in-Chief has made in the last few years with the MIB:

1. Average time to decision is 44 days, current acceptance rate is 35%.
2. Regional editors:  WMIS – Dr. Anna Moore; ESMI – Dr. Bertrand Tavitian; FASMI – Dr. Wei Tian.  Their responsibility is to confer with the EIC on strategic issues involving the journal as reflected by the societies they also represent.

New Collaborations

The WMIS mission is to both present and support the growth and development of novel scientific discoveries. Innovation and integration are the foundation of WMIS. We have a directed vision and a streamlined ability to adapt to emerging innovations and to integrate them into our society. By working in tandem with industry, government and advocacy groups, we can broaden our focus, our knowledge and our reach.

Exploiting molecular biological and genetic information is the foundation of what we do on a daily basis. In our goal to reach the full potential of personalized medicine the WMIS has dedicated funding and efforts to the discovery, acceptance and utilization of new MI tracers. We are actively participating in global outreach programs, securing the regulatory process for 11C-choline, Amyloid Imaging and Na18F and targeting the new most innovative tracers to share with our members and the MI community.

We are proud to announce the WMIS Collaboration with NCI on the Topic of Best Practices for Co-clinical Trials. Again, and in concert with the announcement of the White House Precision Medicine Initiative, the WMIS, and with the assistance of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM), will explore how to promote best practices in quantitative molecular imaging for the best outcomes in co-clinical trials. We will achieve this in two facets, with the WMIS, being primarily focused on preclinical imaging, while AAPM will focus on the physical standards for co-clinical trials.

WMIC 2016 New York, New York

The WMIS has traditionally rotated the location of their annual meetings between the US, Asia and Europe. Based on m
embership request, going forward WMIS is announcing a new rotation strategy for future WMIC. In an attempt to create greater access to the conferences, the Congress will now be held predominately in the US. Following this year’s meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii, the location of WMIC 2016 has been changed from Vienna Austria to New York City. This announcement has created excitement with our US, European and Asian members and we hope to see an increase in attendees.

As you can see, the WMIS is committed to bringing key technologies that enable the study of biology in complex living systems to the greater scientific community, and to advancing the imaging tools that will help patients who suffer from the most devastating diseases. The efforts to promote innovations will continue and extend beyond our borders through collaborations with related projects around the world. With our commitment, the interest in precision medicine and molecular imaging will continue to motivate and attract worldwide visionary scientists from many disciplines. Disseminating knowledge on the development and deployment of new tools and technologies on a global scale is the aim of WMIS, and we will continue to work with our international colleagues to ensure that our voice reflects the advances taking place around the world.

Professor Jason S. Lewis
President of WMIS
Emily Tow Jackson Chair at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center