Program-at-a-Glance

The 2026 SNMMI AI Summit will be held at the Bethesdan Hotel in Bethesda, Maryland, and will begin March 12 and conclude on March 13.

The full program of events is outlined below.

Thursday March 12, 2026

1:00-1:15 pm

Welcome and Introduction to Day 1

Abhinav K. Jha, PhD
Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering and of Radiology, Washington University, St. Louis
AI Task Force Chair

1:15-2:00 pm

Plenary 1: Regulatory Science Aspects of AI

Aldo Badano, PhD – Director, Division of Imaging, Diagnostics, and Software Reliability, OSEL/CDRH, Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

2:00-3:15 pm

Session 1: From Promise to Practice: Stakeholder Perspectives on AI Adoption in Nuclear Medicine

Chairs:

  • Mario Jreige, MD – Department of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, University of Lausanne
  • Kuangyu Shi, PhD – Chief Medical Physicist & Head of Artificial Intelligence and Translational Theranostics, University of Bern
  • Derrick Gillan, MBA, RT(N)(CT)(MR) – Oregon Health and Science University

Speakers:

  1. Translating AI into Clinical Practice: A Physician's Perspective
    Hongyoon Choi, MD – Associate Professor, Department of Nuclear Medicine, Seoul National University Hospital/ Co-founder and CTO, Portrai
  2. What AI Can Do for Technologists
    Jose Leon, MBA, RT(N)(MR) – University of Maryland, Founder of Be MRI Safe
  3. Patient-Centered AI: Expectations, Reality, Challenges, and Adoption.
    Josh Mailman – President, Board of Director Neuroendocrine Tumor Research Foundation (NETRF)
  4. Three Exits Later: What I Know Now About Building AI That Sticks
    Woojin Kim, MD – Chief Strategy Officer and Chief Medical Information Officer at HOPPR

Panel Discussion

 

3:15-3:30 pm

Coffee break and Networking

3:30-4:45 pm

Session 2: Technological Advances in AI Supporting Clinical Adoption

Chairs:

  • Joyita Dutta, PhD – Professor, Biomedical Engineering, University of Massachusetts Amherst
  • Kuang Gong, PhD – Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering, University of Florida

Speakers:

  1. Development and Translation of Foundation Models for Medical Imaging
    Ge Wang, PhD – Director of Biomedical Imaging Center, RPI
  2. Vision-Language Models in Radiology: How and Why?
    Akshay Chaudhari, PhD – Assistant Professor of Radiology and of Biomedical Data Science, Stanford University
  3. Building Foundation Models for Generative AI in Healthcare
    Daguang Xu, PhD – Senior Research Manager at NVIDIA

Panel Discussion

4:45-5:00 pm

Group Photo

5:00-7:00 pm

Hands-On AI Showcase + Reception

Friday, March 13

7:00-8:00 am

Breakfast

8:00-8:15 am

Introduction to Day 2
Abhinav K. Jha, PhD
Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering and of Radiology, Washington University, St. Louis
AI Task Force Chair

8:15-9:00 am

Plenary 2: From Data to Prediction: Integrating Models, Imaging, and Biology

Keyvan Farahani, PhD – Senior Data Science, Imaging, and AI Program Director, NIH

9:00-10:15 am

Session 3: AI in Computational Nuclear Oncology: Enabling Theranostic Development and Clinical Implementation

Chairs:

  • Babak Saboury, MD – Executive and Medical Director of Clinical Trials at United Theranostics
  • Emilie Roncali, PhD – Associate Professor, University of California Davis

Speakers:

  1. Clinical Nuclear Oncology Informed by Advancing Computational Solutions
    Pedram Heidari, MD – Assistant Professor of Radiology, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital
  2. Formalizing Mechanistic Reasoning for Explainable AI in Nuclear Medicine
    Mark Transtrum, PhD – Associate Professor, Brigham Young University
  3. Virtual Theranostic Trials (VTTs) in the Brave Era of New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) and Precision Radiopharmaceutical Therapies.
    Arman Rahmim, PhD – Distinguished Scientist, Professor, BC Cancer

Panel Discussion

10:15-10:30am

Coffee break and Networking

10:30-11:45 am

Session 4: Developing Sustainable Data Ecosystems for Clinical Validation and AI Translation

Chairs:

  • Georges El Fakhri, PhD – Professor of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, Yale School of Medicine
  • Nicolas A. Karakatsanis, PhD – Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Weill Cornell Medical College

Speakers:

  1. Building Data Repositories within and across Institutions
    Daniella Meeker, PhD – Associate Professor of Biomedical Informatics and Data Science, Yale University
  2. A Vision for the Future Nuclear Medicine Informatics Landscape: ontologies and data models 
    Julia Brosch Lenz, PhD – Head of the Quantitative Molecular Imaging and Dosimetry Section, Augsburg University Hospital
  3. Beyond Data Sharing: The Future of Medical Imaging AI Through Federated Model Collaboration
    Jayashree Kalpathy-Cramer, PhD – Professor, Chief, Division of Artificial Medical Intelligence, Ophthalmology, University of Colorado Anschutz
  4. MIDRC: Image-Focused AI Solutions for Enhanced Clinical Care
    Paul Kinahan, PhD – Professor of Radiology and Bioengineering, University of Washington

Panel Discussion

11:45 am-1:00 pm

Lunch

1:00-2:00 pm

Panel on Economics of AI

Moderators:

  • Munir Ghesani, MD – Chief Medical Officer at United Theranostics, Faculty in Neurosurgery at Mount Sinai Health System
  • Eliot Siegel, MD – Professor and Vice Chair at the University of Maryland School of Medicine

Panel Members:

  1. Scott Bartley, MD – VA Midwest Health Care Network
  2. Robert Ochs, PhD – Director, OHT8: Office of Radiological Health, FDA
  3. Sergio Calvo – GE Healthcare

2:00-2:15 pm

Coffee break and Networking

2:00-3:00 pm

Breakout Sessions

  • Implementing Home-Grown AI in Clinical Practice: Challenges and Solutions
    Moderator: Chi Liu, PhD – Professor, Yale University
  • Operational Models for Industry–Academia AI Partnerships in Nuclear Medicine
    Moderator: Sven Zuehlsdorff, PhD – Vice President, Research (Molecular Imaging), Siemens Healthineers
  • Advancing Clinically Relevant AI Validation in Nuclear Medicine
    Moderator: Barriers and Actionable Steps: Abhinav K. Jha, PhD – Associate Professor, Washington University

3:15-3:45 pm

Reports from Breakout Sessions from moderators

3:45-4:45 pm

Physician Panel: The Hype, Hope, and Clinical Reality of AI

Moderator:

  • Quanzheng Li, PhD – Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital

Panel Members:

  • Eliot Siegel, MD – Professor and Vice Chair at the University of Maryland School of Medicine
  • Evrim Turkbey, MD – Radiology and Imaging Sciences, NIH Clinical Center
  • Pedram Heidari, MD – Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital
  • Mario Jreige, MD – Department of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, University of Lausanne

4:45-5:00 pm

Thank You
Tyler Bradshaw, PhD
Associate Professor of Radiology, University of Wisconsin Madison
AI Task Force Vice Chair