I am very excited and honoured to be your president. I would like to thank John Buscombe for his excellent leadership of our society through these challenging times. He has brought tremendous experience and knowledge coupled with his great dry sense of humour which got us safely through 2 waves of pandemic! John is now immediate past president on council sand I am sure I will be taking his wise council going forward.

The virtual spring meeting was excellent. I learned a number of things and found the quality of the talks to be very high. The platform worked well too. I would like to thank Arum Parthipun and the Royal Free Team for delivering such a great meeting. They have set the bar high! I would also like to thank Charlotte and Caroline from the office for making it all happen behind the scenes. Rhubarb my cat also sends her congratulations as she particularly enjoyed the closing ceremony!

Despite the challenges of the pandemic the societies finances are in good shape thanks to Jilly Croasdale’s attention to details and prudence as the BNMS treasurer. Many societies have really struggled and so this good position was not a given. We owe Jilly a great debt of gratitude for this.

My colleagues in Bath, Stewart Redman, has kept the wheels on the society as secretary and made sure the BNMS is stake holding in many important initiatives. Bev Ellis continues to lead our professional standards with great effect maintaining our position of setting best practice in our discipline nationally. Sabina Dizdarevic and Vineet Prakash have led our research and education admirably with a great autumn  virtual meeting on its way. The BNMS’s research strategy is advancing too.

My current priorities are:

1. Delivering covid recovery through supporting departments nationally to optimimse their capacity in light of the constraints through our guidance. Our patients need us now more than ever, no where more than in cancer pathways where are tests and therapies are often crucial. We have a massive rise in PET-CT throughout the last year (up ~16% cf ~8% in CT/MRI). Some of which has been fuelled by the 5-day service level agreement for a report where patients may waits several weeks in CT. We should all be proud of the PET-CT services that are delivered in the UK. I
2. Gaining professional registration for technologists. We are involved in several initiatives to put pressure on the government to make this happen. We hope by pushing on multiple fronts that one will be successful.
3. Molecular radiotherapy: John Buscombe is leading this initiative to level up access in the UK and make sure we are ready if PSMA therapy becomes licensed. This includes not just the therapy but dosimetry too.

We as a society continue to contribute to EANM guidelines. I will send out these from time to time for comment from the wider society. Thank you all for those who have given of their time recently to improve these guidelines.

I am very keen for wide participation in our society. Diversity is our strength. If you wish to get more formally involved, please let Charlotte Weston know and we will find you a job. We will also regularly advertise positions which I urge you to apply for. Thank you again for all that you do for our specialty and in turn our patients. I look forward to catching up with you in person when that is allowed!

Prof Richard Graham

BNMS President