NKRV is an abbreviation of the ‘Nederlands Klinische Radiochemische Vereniging’ which can be translated as the Dutch Society for Clinical Radiochemistry. The mission of NKRV is to stimulate research and education in radio(pharmaceutical)-chemistry as wel as the application of radiopharmaceuticals in the clinic. The NKRV achieves this by:
Stimulation of knowledge exchange and brainstorm events on radio(pharmaceutical) topics
Support in organizing professional education programs for chemists, pharmacists, biologists, medical doctors, physicists and other professionals
Spreading information about radio(pharmaceutical) chemistry science
Initiating and stimulating educational programs in radio(pharmaceutical) chemistry which can be embedded in existing bachelor and master programs
The target audience of the NKRV are professionals from different disciplines which are involved in the development and application of radiopharmaceuticals in research, health sector or industry.
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History
How did the NKRV actually start?
In the spring of 2004, Otto Boerman (UMC Radboud), Marion de Jong (Erasmus MC), Bert Windhorst (VUMc) and Philip Elsinga (UMC Groningen) pluck up courage and came together in Groningen to see if we as radiochemists could join forces and where possible work together. Until that time there was no Dutch network and the radiochemists were not organized. Of course we knew each other and there were also contacts.
During the first meeting at the UMCG and then at the Bistro “de Stadtlander” it became clear that there was a unanimous need for more exchange of experiences and for the setting up of training for both chemists and analysts. We decided to call our club “radiochemie.nl”. We were not an association and our goal was to organize workshops twice a year throughout the country with an informal, low-threshold nature.
The first Radiochemie.nl workshop was at VU Amsterdam on 4 June 2004. Around 35 people came. An early characteristic of this first meeting was that we had already devised the now famous “round table discussion groups” to be able to easily discuss in smaller groups. Bert Windhorst demonstrated his hospitality by organizing a fantastic barbecue in the RNC garden.
Pretty soon after the first few workshops, Bert Wolterbeek from Delft joined the group that could not yet call itself a board.
The activities also extended to giving courses. In addition to a one-off [99mTc]Tc-course provided by Otto Boerman, Bert and Philip have given many 2-day [18F]F-courses at the RNC with theory on day 1 and a practical on day 2.
In the meantime the idea arose to form an association to get more face out and to support the desire to set up the Clinical Radiochemist profession. On March 28, 2008, the Dutch Clinical Radiochemical Association (NKRV) was officially established, going to the notary and drawing up internal rules and we had a real board.
The number of participants steadily increased to 70-100 and received an extra boost when the official language became English, making the workshop accessible to foreign PhD students.
After the establishment of the NKRV, contact was quickly made with Det Norske Veritas (DNV) to draw up a Competence Matrix. All this has since resulted in the certification of 7 people as a Clinical Radiochemist.
The NKRV is very active, recently had a number of changes in management with new impulses and initiatives, and the workshops have never been so well attended. What has remained is the low-threshold character with round tables and drinks afterwards.
