Abstract
BackgroundThis paper is the first in a series of invited perspectives by four pioneers of Nuclear Medicine imaging and physics. A medical physicist and a Nuclear Medicine clinical specialist each take a backward look and a forward look at the contributions of Medical Physics to Nuclear Medicine.DiscussionContributions of Medical Physics are presented from the early discovery of radioactivity, development of first imaging devices, computers and emission tomography to recent development of hybrid imaging.SummaryThere is evidence of significant contribution of Medical Physics throughout the development of Nuclear Medicine.
Highlights
This paper is the first in a series of invited perspectives by four pioneers of Nuclear Medicine imaging and physics
The origins of Nuclear Medicine arose from the disciplines of both chemistry and physics
The focus in this article is on this latter group of scientists, collectively referred to as ‘medical physicists’, but including physicists, engineers, computer scientists, mathematicians and statisticians who all contribute to the technological development that underpins Nuclear Medicine
Summary
Nuclear Medicine has its basis in ‘the use of radioactive tracers for medical diagnosis, therapy’. The strength of Nuclear Medicine continues to be its unique sensitivity to picomolar concentrations of radiotracer that can be used to probe underlying physiological, biochemical and molecular processes. The exploitation of this capability continues to rely on joint ingenuity of scientific and clinical specialists. The focus in this article is on this latter group of scientists, collectively referred to as ‘medical physicists’, but including physicists, engineers, computer scientists, mathematicians and statisticians (including technologically oriented clinicians) who all contribute to the technological development that underpins Nuclear Medicine. Medicine is well beyond the scope of this short article; instead, selected historical examples will be used to highlight the continuing significant clinical impact that medical physicists contribute to the field. Readers are referred to some general texts [1,2,3,4] and historical reviews [5,6,7,8,9,10] that provide more detailed description of technological developments in addition to selected key articles
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