title: Nuclear medicine at a crossroads.
abstract: The growth of molecular imaging heightens the promise of clinical nuclear medicine as a tool for individualization of patient care and for improvement of health-care outcomes. Together with greater use of integrated structure-function imaging, clinical nuclear medicine reaches beyond traditional specialty borders into diagnostic radiology and oncology. Yet, there are concerns about the future of nuclear medicine, including progressively declining reimbursement, the competitive advantages of diagnostic radiology, limited translation of research accomplishments to clinical diagnostic imaging and patient care, and an insufficient pool of incoming highly qualified nuclear medicine clinicians. Thus, nuclear medicine views itself as being at a critical crossroads. What will be important is for nuclear medicine to be positioned as the quintessential molecular imaging modality more centrally within medical imaging and for the integration of nuclear medicine with primary care specialties to be driven more by patient needs than by specialty needs. In this way, the full potential of nuclear medicine as an effective and efficient tool for improving patient outcomes can be realized.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA. hschelbert@mednet.ucla.edu
authors.forename: Heinrich R
authors.initials: HR
authors.lastname: Schelbert
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D009683:Nuclear Medicine / Q000191:economics / Q000193:education / Q000639:trends*; D011849:Radioactive Tracers
chemical_list: D011849:Radioactive Tracers