Darlene Fong Metter, MD, FACR, FACNM, FSNMMI
SWC-SNMMI President 2009-2010

Please tell us about yourself.

I was born in Honolulu, HI, where I received my MD.  I was in San Antonio, TX, for residency in 1978.  In 1980 I was married and have 3 sons (2 pathologists like their Dad!).  I am a tenured Professor at UT Health San Antonio; board-certified in Family Practice, Radiology, and Nuclear Medicine, am a multi-invited meeting lecturer, and have  > 40 visiting professorships. My hobbies are teaching, reading fiction, jigsaw puzzles, cooking, our pets (3 cats, 1 dog, 8 longhorn cows), and visiting my relatives, especially my 1st grandchild!

Give us your background information related to your professional training, including nuclear medicine, and what inspired you to enter this field.

I have 2 San Antonio residencies (Family Practice, Radiology), a Nuclear Medicine Fellowship, 8 years of private practice, and have been academic since 1996. My Mom was a role-model in caring for others as well as my aunt (our family physician) in patient care, and hence, I pursed primary care/taking care of patients/helping other.  But I loved imaging and pathophysiology, and thus, I pursued radiology and nuclear medicine which I view with a clinical perspective.

 What do you consider your primary contribution(s) to Nuclear Medicine?

• Education and preserving the specialty of Nuclear Medicine: In 2004, revived the SNMMI Academic Council, and thereby, the NM Program Directors (NMPD) with Dr Bob Lul

• Revitalized the NMPD as Chair with more involved NMPDs (2008-2012)

• 2010 Academic Council Lifetime Achievement Award in Education

• Item writing for the ACR Diagnostic Radiology In-Training exam (since 2005) and ABR (since 2002, oral examiner x 12 years)

• 2004-2010 ACGME NM Residency Review Committee, Chair X 4 years and created the 1st major revision of the NM program requirements incorporating the new 6 Core Competencies

• Joint Review Committee on Educational Programs in Nuclear Medicine Technology, Board of Directors (2013-2022)

• SNMMI Young Professional mentor

• 2016-2024 NRC Advisory Committee on the Medical Uses of Isotopes (ACMUI) Chair x 5 years – protected the Training and Experience and practice of nuclear medicine from non-nuclear medicine entities, and have presented many invited lectureships.

 In what year were you a SWC-SNMMI President, and how did you first become involved with the chapter?

SWC President: 2009-10. Dr Ralph Blumhardt was the 1992 SWC President and my main mentor, my NMPD, and a dear friend. As a NM physician, radiologist, internist, and Vice-Chair of Radiology at UT Health Science Center, San Antonio, Dr Blumhardt loved teaching, made it fun, is an outstanding physician, and the kindest loving person one would ever know. He encouraged me to “get involved,” and I did and with “no regrets!”

Please describe anything else that you would like for your Nuclear Medicine colleagues to know about yourself.

I have 7 siblings, and in a Chinese family, it is important to have a son to “carry on” the family name. So after 7 girls, my parents finally had a son who was likely influenced by all his sisters and became an ObGyn! A “dark secret”: my paternal great grandfather lived in Kauai and was an opium dealer traveling back and forth from Hong Kong in the late 1800’s.