RE: Refeence material

[carol marcus <csmarcus@ucla.edu>]

At 08:24 AM 9/21/99 -0500, you wrote:
>Regarding the number of nuclear medicine procedures annually in the U.S.,
>check the Society of Nuclear Medicine's web site at www.snm.org.  In the
>fast facts about nuc med section, they state 10-12 million nuc med procedures
>annually, and I have heard 12 million quoted elsewhere (but don't ask me 
>where).  As far as external beam/brachytherapy etc, you may find something
>on the AAPM's web site.
>
>John Laferriere
>DuPont Pharmaceuticals Co.
>Medical Imaging Division
>
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> Dear Radsafers:

Current estimates of yearly Nuclear Medicine procedures in the USA are 10-13
million; these figures come from a service subscribed to by industry that
estimates the numbers, and it is not all that precise.  The larger numbers
(over a hundred million) quoted in a previous document included
radioimmunoassay, a laboratory test initially done by Nuclear Medicine
physicians which now has mainly become the province of Pathology.  In
addition, it is dying out, as non-radioactive alternatives, without the
hassle of licensing, User Fees, radioactive waste disposal, employee
badging, and radiation inspections look more and more advantageous.  Many of
the non-radioactive assays have been developed for automation, and I
switched from radio- to non-radioimmunoassay when I ran a small laboratory
simply because the automation made it more economical even though I already
had a broad license and the rest of the radiation rigmarole for other purposes.

As far as Radiation Oncology is concerned, I believe they have a similar
NUMBER OF PROCEDURES to Nuclear Medicine, but each patient gets multiple
procedures, so that the number of individual patients treated is smaller.  

Ciao, Carol

Carol S. Marcus, Ph.D., M.D.
<csmarcus@ucla.edu>

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