Dear AuntMinnie Member,
These are troubling times for nuclear medicine practitioners. A new study indicates that the number of patient visits for nuclear medicine procedures in the U.S. dropped last year by 12%, while at the same time federal funding for research that could lead to new clinical applications is drying up.
That's the story from a pair of articles we're featuring this week in our Molecular Imaging Digital Community. In our first story, staff writer Wayne Forrest describes a new report by market research firm IMV Medical Information Division of Des Plaines, IL, that assesses the current state of the nuclear medicine market.
The 12% drop in patient visits is the first such decline at hospital and nonhospital sites in 10 years, and occurs as many health insurance companies are tightening their precertification requirements before patients can get imaging studies. Read more about the study's findings, including encouraging growth for SPECT/CT, by clicking here.
In our next story, contributing writer Cynthia Keen provides an analysis of a recent report by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and the Institute of Medicine (IOM) on the health of nuclear medicine. Perhaps no other imaging discipline is as reliant on basic science research as nuclear medicine, but funding sources for this research are steadily shrinking, the report states.
For example, the U.S. Congress in 2006 cut the budget by 85% for a key program that maintains the nuclear reactors that are crucial for nuclear medicine R&D. Learn about the long-term impact of cuts like this by clicking here.
But it's not all doom and gloom in nuclear medicine. Individual companies and academic centers continue to press forward with cutting-edge research, such as a novel new scanner that combines PET and MRI in a single system. Get an update on how German and U.S. researchers are progressing with their PET/MRI hybrid device by clicking here.
Get these stories and more in our Molecular Imaging Digital Community, at molecular.auntminnie.com.
