Heartbeat: PET Scanner rolls in to City Hospital

July 21, 2020

No, it’s not a scanner for your dog, it’s the latest addition to the imaging team’s growing arsenal of cutting edge technology, the combined Positron Emission and Computerised Tomography Scanner.

Earlier this month the long-awaited PET/ CT scanner rolled in to view and parked itself outside the imaging department at City Hospital, the unassuming lorry hiding within it a scanner that is set to transform the offering of the imaging department.

Positron Emission Tomography Scanners are unique and innovative scanners that use a small amount of radioactive tracer material to diagnose, evaluate and treat a variety of diseases including cancer, heart disease and neurological amongst others.

To find out more about the new scanner, Heartbeat spoke to Bill Thomson, Consultant Physicist and Head of Physics and Nuclear Medicine. He said “What’s great about PET scanners is that they give us an insight into changes within the body at a cellular level and so it’s one of the most useful diagnostic or treatment information available. This is a very important milestone for the nuclear medicine service our patients can receive.

Although operated by Alliance Medical, our imaging medical staff will authorise the PET/CT referrals.

Also, there is potential for PET/CT reporting of the scans, and Alliance is going to install a dedicated PET/CT reporting station in nuclear medicine.

This will be an important aspect for future recruitment of consultant staff, as well as allowing training in this modality for current trainees.”