WARREN H MOORE, MD
(SWC-SNMMI President 1992-1993)

Please tell us about yourself.

I was born and raised in North Carolina.

My interests in nuclear medicine have varied over the years, but primarily included thromboembolic disease, cardiac applications, and iodine therapy.

Outside of medicine, my interests and hobbies are reading (astronomy, history, and geography), soccer (as a player until age 46, then 20+ years as a referee), woodworking, and hiking/camping.

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

I attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for both undergraduate and medical education, graduating in 1973 and 1977 respectively. I did internal medicine internship and residency at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, SC from 1977-1980 and then nuclear medicine residency at Baylor College of Medicine 1980-1982. I have spent my entire imaging career in Houston.

When I was an internal medicine resident, our Program Director was an endocrinologist who was also a nuc med physician. He developed my interest in nuc med (in fact, for 5 years in a row around me, one of the IM residents in our program did a nuclear medicine residency/fellowship).  I then came to Baylor College of Medicine for nuc med residency,  initially because it was a premier site for nuclear cardiology, plus I really liked the people that were here in the program.

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

I believe my primary contribution to nuc med has been in the area of graduate and continuing education. I served for 5 years as the chairman of the (then) SNM Commission on Education and in that capacity was involved in reorganizing CMS reimbursement for training programs. I received the SMN Educator of the Year award for working to revamp continuing education programs (mostly the annual meeting) when ACCME changed their rules. I also served as Program Director for the Baylor nuc med residency for 17 years. 

Of specific personal satisfaction is being able to promote the involvement of residents and technologists in organized medicine. Our facility was fortunate to have two Chapter members serve as national President for the SNM (John Burdine, MD, and Paul Murphy, PhD) and two for the Technologist Section (Bradley Pounds and Art Hall) and many others serving in important committee positions.

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

I was Chapter President 1992-1993. During that time, we had to replace the Executive Director due to the retirement of the incumbent. We chose Ms Joan Saluzzi, who formed an agency that ultimately brought us into contact with Charlie Metzger.

I became involved in the Chapter following a long tradition of active participation by Baylor faculty (Presidents, Burdine, Sonnemaker, Murphy, Monroe, and later Wendt). I started with various committees, then Trustee, Historian, and ultimately President. Along the way, I served as By-Laws chair for the local chapter and the national SNM, feeding on my perhaps nerdish interest in by-laws and parliamentary procedure. I followed a similar course of committee work in the American College of Nuclear Physicians organization, ultimately serving as one of its last presidents prior to its (long overdue) merger with the American College of Nuclear Medicine.

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

I came into nuc med while many of the major figures had been trained as internists and at a time when the old pertechnetate brain scan was being replaced by CT, but cardiac radionuclide imaging was just getting real traction in clinical imaging. Over my career, I have seen the shift to Radiology background interests and a reversal of some clinical application patterns. (For example, as a trainee, we did 20-30 stress/rest MUGA studies per day and 1-2 (thallium) perfusion scans per week.) I have very much enjoyed my time in various nuclear medicine organizations and have always found that you get back from any organization in proportion to what you put in. While I do not see a very rosy picture for nuclear medicine as a specialty, I continue to believe that the modality is solid and will continue to develop. I hope that we will continue to have adequately trained physicians and technologists to take advantage of this scientific potential.