A Bridge Not Too Far: Linking Disciplines Through Molecular Imaging Probes

Abstract

CE credit: For CE credit, you can access the test for this article, as well as additional JNMT CE tests, online at https://www.snmmilearningcenter.org. Complete the test online no later than September 2016. Your online test will be scored immediately. You may make 3 attempts to pass the test and must answer 80% of the questions correctly to receive 1.0 CEH (Continuing Education Hour) credit. SNMMI members will have their CEH credit added to their VOICE transcript automatically; nonmembers will be able to print out a CE certificate upon successfully completing the test. The online test is free to SNMMI members; nonmembers must pay $15.00 by credit card when logging onto the website to take the test.The field of nuclear medicine will rely increasingly on the discovery, proper evaluation, and clinical use of molecular imaging probes and on collaborations. Collaborations will include new initiatives among experts already involved in the field and with researchers, technologists, and clinicians from different areas of science and medicine. This article serves to highlight some of the opportunities in which molecular imaging and nuclear medicine in conjunction with probe development, new imaging technologies, and multidisciplinary collaborations can have a significant impact on health care and basic science from the perspective of a person involved in probe development. The article emphasizes breast cancer, but the concepts are readily applied to other areas of medicine and medical research. Nucl ear medicine is a unique field in that it relies on habitual collaboration between groups possessing disparate expertise. Nuclear medicine physicians work collaboratively on a daily basis with imaging physicists and nuclear medicine technologists who directly and indirectly rely on partnerships with biologists, chemists, engineers, and medical research teams to develop, validate, and produce radiopharmaceuticals. The future of nuclear medicine involves exploiting the full potential of molecular imaging and targeted radiotherapy and will require building on the existing culture of collaboration. To be truly successful, nuclear medicine will need to form bridges to groups outside the present sphere of collaboration-the underlying theme of this article.Society is facing challenging times that will shape the future of probe development. There has been a significant downturn in the world's economy that is affecting economic decisions made by consumers and governments, particularly with respect to health care. The world is in the midst of a protracted and ongoing isotope shortage, both an acute shortage associated with the shutdown of the reactor at Chalk River, limiting the supply of 99 Mo and 99m Tc, and a chronic underfunding of cyclotron laboratories. Economic pressures are affecting the way decisions are made about which new diagnostic technologies will ultimately be funded. This effect is true in public, private, and hybrid-model health-care systems, in which groups developing new probes must be conscious about both the healt...

The Future of Nuclear Medicine as an Independent Specialty

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Imaging of Male Breast Cancer

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Radiopharmaceutical enhancement by drug delivery systems: A review

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