Historic perspective

Abstract

Recording the chronology of nuclear medicine instrumentation poses some difficult decisions as does the determination of the "father" of nuclear medicine?. Historians can agree on well-defined dates and events, but many of them are subjective and reside in the memories of those of us who were fortunate to experience the formative years of our field. We all search for the historical truth. The highlights of this story may begin with John Lawrence and phosphorus-32 therapy at Berkeley and continue with Enrico Fermi's sustained nuclear reaction, which lead to the Manhattan Project, then the Atomic Energy Commission, and finally, Sam Seidlin's treatment of thyroid metastases with iodine-131. The rectilinear scanner came to us from Benedict Cassen and was followed by Hal O. Anger and his gamma scintillation camera, one of the most pivotal developments in the field. A plethora of cameras followed: Merrill Benders's digital autofluroscope, Dave Kuhl's efforts for tomographic imaging, and then on to single photon emission computed tomography. Finally, we come back to Hal O. Anger, who suggested and worked with the idea of a positron camera, with positron emission tomography becoming commercially available in 1985. Ours is a variegated history, and I hope that this account speaks the historical truth.