Among the highlights of this congress, the increasing importance of FDG and PET stands out. In particular, the number of PET/CT scanners is rising within nuclear medicine, as is their scientific and clinical impact. Excellent contributions were also presented on new instrumentation and radiopharmacy, with particular focus on technetium-labelled radiopharmaceuticals, which remain the cornerstone of our specialty. New radiopharmaceuticals are aimed at improving specific targeting, and serve to demonstrate the enormous potential and clinical importance of molecular nuclear medicine. The leitmotif of this congress was "quality", and with this in mind the following concluding remarks on improving quality in nuclear medicine seem apposite: We need to further increase the number of PET, and particularly PET/CT, scanners in Europe, but we must also encourage the development of new radiopharmaceuticals labelled with positron emitters for use with PET scanners. Furthermore, we need to continue to stimulate and support basic research, which is the "life-blood" of our specialty, and to continually propose new ideas and methodologies for improving health care. We also require more help from industry to sustain the production of new radiopharmaceuticals. Most importantly, we must improve interdisciplinary dialogue, clearly defining the role and competence of nuclear medicine in patient care, which spans from prevention to diagnosis, and from therapy decision-making through therapy itself to follow-up. We should reflect more on the excellent science presented at congresses like this one and, on the other hand, on the still limited clinical role of nuclear medicine. It is therefore a priority for each of us, and for our scientific societies in particular, to intensify the dialogue with physicians of other disciplines. Scientific societies now have evidence-based results to which they can refer in urging authorities to simplify the regulation governing research into and commercialisation of new agents and to improve reimbursement of nuclear medicine examinations.
Highlights of the Annual Congress of the European Association of Nuclear Medicine, Amsterdam 2003 / Signore, Alberto. - In: EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF NUCLEAR MEDICINE AND MOLECULAR IMAGING. - ISSN 1619-7070. - STAMPA. - 31:3(2004), pp. 439-458. [10.1007/s00259-004-1454-8]
Highlights of the Annual Congress of the European Association of Nuclear Medicine, Amsterdam 2003
SIGNORE, Alberto
2004
Abstract
Among the highlights of this congress, the increasing importance of FDG and PET stands out. In particular, the number of PET/CT scanners is rising within nuclear medicine, as is their scientific and clinical impact. Excellent contributions were also presented on new instrumentation and radiopharmacy, with particular focus on technetium-labelled radiopharmaceuticals, which remain the cornerstone of our specialty. New radiopharmaceuticals are aimed at improving specific targeting, and serve to demonstrate the enormous potential and clinical importance of molecular nuclear medicine. The leitmotif of this congress was "quality", and with this in mind the following concluding remarks on improving quality in nuclear medicine seem apposite: We need to further increase the number of PET, and particularly PET/CT, scanners in Europe, but we must also encourage the development of new radiopharmaceuticals labelled with positron emitters for use with PET scanners. Furthermore, we need to continue to stimulate and support basic research, which is the "life-blood" of our specialty, and to continually propose new ideas and methodologies for improving health care. We also require more help from industry to sustain the production of new radiopharmaceuticals. Most importantly, we must improve interdisciplinary dialogue, clearly defining the role and competence of nuclear medicine in patient care, which spans from prevention to diagnosis, and from therapy decision-making through therapy itself to follow-up. We should reflect more on the excellent science presented at congresses like this one and, on the other hand, on the still limited clinical role of nuclear medicine. It is therefore a priority for each of us, and for our scientific societies in particular, to intensify the dialogue with physicians of other disciplines. Scientific societies now have evidence-based results to which they can refer in urging authorities to simplify the regulation governing research into and commercialisation of new agents and to improve reimbursement of nuclear medicine examinations.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.