PET Facilities

Getting Started

PET facilities with PET brain imaging accreditation are welcome to apply for participation in the IDEAS study. The facility must document that it has experience performing brain PET, PET/CT, or PET/MRI with one of the FDA-approved amyloid imaging agents, with F-18 fluorodeoxyglucose, or with both.

During Study

Amyloid PET scans will be interpreted by physicians board-certified in radiology or nuclear medicine and who have completed the vendor-provided, tracer-specific training program provided for each radiopharmaceutical that they will use. The physician must also consent to participate in the study and to adhere to protocol procedures.

Participating facilities and interpreting physicians will be reimbursed for global or technical and professional services, respectively, provided to the Medicare beneficiary patient, under CMS Coverage with Evidence Development, which requires research study participation as a condition of Medicare payment.

The PET images will be collected for this study via TRIAD, proprietary software which de-identifies images at a site and enables online transmission.

Interpreting Physician Educational Resources

FAQ

The New IDEAS study is currently reaching out to dementia specialists in areas identified by our community engagement and recruitment team. Those practices are asked to identify which imaging facility they would plan on referring their patients to. The study team will reach out to the imaging facilities that are identified. If you have not been contacted by the study and would like to be considered as a participating facility, please send an email to newideas@acr.org.

Participation in New IDEAS requires the submission of a site feasibility questionnaire and subsequent approval by the study. Information about the New IDEAS study will also be disseminated via professional organizations dedicated to neurology, psychiatry, geriatrics, nuclear medicine and radiology.

Access the feasibility questionnaire for imaging facilities.

PET facilities must have experience in administering and interpreting brain PET, with preference given to sites that have experience with amyloid PET. Participating PET facilities may be freestanding and accredited by either the ACR, the Intersocietal Accreditation Commission (IAC) or RadSite OR hospital-based and accredited by the Joint Commission, with or without additional accreditation by ACR, IAC or RadSite. PET facilities must document experience performing brain PET, PET/CT or PET/MRI with one of the FDA-approved amyloid imaging agents, or with F-18 fluorodeoxyglucose, or with both. Participating radiologists and nuclear medicine physicians reading images must have completed vendor-provided reader training.
No. Only facilities with full-ring BGO, GSO, LSO or LYSO PET scanners are eligible to participate. Partial-ring systems and dedicated NaI systems are not eligible for use in the New IDEAS study.

The New IDEAS study will include the three amyloid PET imaging radiopharmaceuticals that have been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for clinical use:

  • F-18 florbetapir (Amyvid™)
  • F-18 flutemetamol (Vizamyl™)
  • F-18 florbetaben (Neuraceq™)

Amyloid PET tracers that have not been approved by the FDA for clinical use will not be included in the New IDEAS study.

This study is tracer-agnostic. Amyvid™, Vizamyl™ and Neuraceq™ are all FDA-approved. The tracer used for the scan is dependent upon supplier availability and the facility’s choice; in addition, the interpreting physician must be able to document vendor-specific training. The New IDEAS study team only determines if a PET facility meets study criteria.
A potentially very helpful PET scan will be covered for their patients with cognitive decline in whom the diagnosis is not clear. Participating PET facilities will be reimbursed for the PET scans under CMS Coverage with Evidence Development, which requires research study participation as a condition of Medicare payment.

TRIAD is an image and data exchange platform developed by the American College of Radiology. TRIAD is a standards-based open-architecture platform that supports HIPAA security rules relevant to clinical trials. It automatically de-identifies the DICOM headers and cleans the PHI from the DICOM images before submission.

Access to TRIAD is role-based and controlled by username and password. Once the integration between TRIAD and the New IDEAS database has been built, the designated staff at your facility will be contacted to register for a login; this will occur shortly before activation.

No. The New IDEAS study requires a different agreement to be executed. The template agreement will be provided to the facility at the time of study invitation.
No. Your facility must confirm its accreditation as part of the application process to participate in New IDEAS. An invitation to participate will not be extended until accreditation has been obtained.

Radiopharmaceutical manufacturer assistance is available for technologists and physicians.

Amyvid (florbetapir) 

Neuraceq (florbetaben)

Vizamyl (flutemetamol)

Avid Radiopharmaceuticals
Amyvid_NEWIDEASSupport@Lilly.com
877-9-AMYVID

Life Molecular Imaging
Neuraceq.support@piramal.com
1-855-815-5499

GE Healthcare
IDEAS@ge.com
1-800-654-0118, option 1

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