“A Future Amalgamation Between the Scientist and the Clinician?”

Abstract

Personalized medicine is gaining momentum and analytical methods such as MS are ideally situated to provide coherent imaging of human disease. The cancer research field is already starting to benefit from the MS imaging applications; non-cancerous diseases will hopefully enjoy the same success. Often, the way forward is to embrace several techniques, which can complement and verify each other. This approach can be seen as less confrontational as everyone can play a part in the development of a new working practice. Stakeholders, professional bodies, and instrument manufacturers will be open to maximizing the patient benefit; investment is more likely given the past performance and reputation of the collaborative highly skilled team.With this in mind, how close are we to a future amalgamation between the scientist and the clinician? Can we accelerate the integration of innovative bench technologies into the clinical setting and bring state-of-the-art imaging diagnostics to the patient bedside or General Practitioners treatment room?