A recent court decision has given the nuclear medicine communitya forum in which to challenge the Nuclear Regulatory Commission'scontroversial license fees for handling radioisotopes. Nuclearmedicine practitioners charge that NRC fees have skyrocketed
The regulation of medical radiation came under fire this monthat a Congressional hearing held to follow up on reports of treatmenterrors in radiation therapy and nuclear medicine. The hearingcould be the first step in an overhaul of the way in which
Nuclear medicine advocates are claiming victory after the U.S.Department of Energy last month requested $2 million to studythe creation of a National Biomedical Tracer Facility to produceradioisotopes. Such a study would be a major step toward securinga
Gamma cameras aren't the only nuclear detectors that will takeadvantage of targeted monoclonal antibody nuclear tracer technology.Nonimaging probes, such as those manufactured by Neoprobe andCare Wise Medical Products (SCAN 9/26/90 and 12/04/91), use
After years of waiting, the U.S. nuclear medicine profession hasbeen granted access to tumor-targeted monoclonal antibody imagingagents for routine clinical use. Apart from its diagnostic benefits,monoclonal antibody technology offers the potential of
It was every doctor's nightmare: a five-part investigative newspaperseries on medical blunders. In emotional prose dripping with descriptionsof "horrible deaths," "hospital cover-ups"and "government laxity," two reporters
Faster review of monoclonal antibody imaging agents by Europeanregulatory authorities led many in the U.S. nuclear medicine fieldto look across the Atlantic for the first commercial success ofthis targeted tracer technology. Unfortunately, the European
Independent Scintillation Imaging Systems (ISIS) of Lachine, Quebec,will build a direct sales and marketing group headquartered outsideBoston to handle U.S. sales of its non-Anger, digital nuclearmedicine camera upon approval by the Food and Drug
The U.S. Department of Energy wants to create a domestic sourcefor isotopes, both stable and radioactive. Witnesses at a Congressionalhearing on Aug. 12, however, criticized the DOE's efforts as inadequate. Nuclear medicine's dependence on a single
Nuclear medicine averted a crisis last month when workers at theworld's main source of the raw material for technetium-99m settledcontract negotiations hours before a strike deadline. A laborwalkout would have caused a major shortage of the most
Syncor International has filed a petition with the Food and DrugAdministration in a move related to the agency's review of radiopharmaceuticalsfor positron emission computed tomography.Syncor, headquartered in Chatsworth, CA, operates 94 nuclear
Regulatory restrictions in the U.S. and a slow-to-start market for single-photon emission computed tomography brain imaging have combined to cut off supplies of one of the two approved SPECT brain imaging agents. To their consternation, nuclear medicine
ADAC Laboratories is riding high on sales of its Genesys SPECTsystems and Pegasys nuclear medicine workstation. The medicalimaging vendor, located in Milpitas, CA, will use this momentumto boost its business outside the U.S. and transfer R&D
An industry of protest has grown up around the five-year-old GEboycott over the company's involvement in nuclear weapons production.Infact, the Boston-based support group for the boycott, receivednationwide publicity last month when its film on GE,
Sopha Medical of Buc, France, has positioned itself to reproducein other medical imaging modalities the targeted R&D and marketingapproach that has proved successful in nuclear medicine, saidDr. Maurice Soustiel, president and CEO. The industrial
ADAC Laboratories claimed at the RSNA meeting last month to havegrown from the third-largest supplier of SPECT cameras in theU.S. to first place in 1991. According to ADAC's analysis of theU.S. SPECT market, the top camera suppliers after itself are
Two different approaches to the nuclear SPECT camera market wereon display at the RSNA meeting last month. There was some debateat the show over the benefits of dedicated versus general-purposenuclear cameras. GE offered a fixed-detector dual-head SPECT
With approval of monoclonal antibody-based radiopharmaceuticalsproceeding faster in Europe than in the U.S., market prospectsfor equipment using these targeted nuclear medicine agents arealso more immediate in that region. Care Wise Medical Products of
Philips Medical Systems has halted manufacture of nuclear medicineimaging systems to concentrate on better business prospects inother modalities. The firm will focus on MRI, ultrasound, CT,x-ray, and radiation therapy, according to Hans van Bree,
DataView, a three-year-old teleradiology firm and nuclear medicineremanufacturer based in Tucker, GA, is attempting to build aninternational medical imaging reading and advisory service. The network will focus on China/U.S. communications, accordingto
Initiation of dual-head single-photon emission computed tomographycamera sales this year will boost revenues in the nuclear marketby about 10%, predicted James L. Besett, general manager of Picker'snuclear medicine division. Unit sales will remain fairly
Nuclear medicine vendor Trionix has always maintained a strongtechnological relationship with Sun Microsystems. Sun computerprocessing technology is built into the firm's high-end triple-and dual-detector SPECT cameras, the Triad and the Biad. The
ADAC Laboratories hopes to gain market leadership in nuclear medicineby 1994. Coming from a vendor that saw nuclear medicine revenuesslide 30% last year, that spells confidence. Overtaking Siemens,current nuclear leader, represents a major hurdle. To
Dynamic volumetric SPECT acquisition has been made possible throughthe application of slip-ring technology to nuclear medicine. Elscintintroduced Apex Helix, a continuously rotating dual-head camera,at the Society of Nuclear Medicine meeting in
Iain Stark, former president of the North American subsidiaryof Scottish gamma camera manufacturer Scintronix (SCAN 12/28/88),has invented an innovative "non-Anger" nuclear medicinecamera. Stark lined up Canadian venture capital last year to
