PET IN ONCOLOGY
Guest Editor: I. Carrio 

The Quarterly Journal of Nuclear Medicine 2001 September;45(3):209-14

Copyright © 2009 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

The Internet: the road to more effective PET

Wagner H. N. Jr.

From the Radiation Health Sciences Johns Hopkins School of Public Health Baltimore, Maryland, USA

We may ­live in the Information Age, but so far infor­ma­tion tech­nol­o­gy (IT) has had lit­tle ­impact on how ­most nucle­ar med­i­cine phy­si­cians and radiol­o­gists prac­tice med­i­cine. Many ­remain skep­ti­cal ­that IT can ­improve the ­care of ­patients, ­increase pro­duc­tiv­ity, or ­enhance ­income. They ­fail to rec­og­nize ­that IT is a dis­rup­tive tech­nol­o­gy ­that ­will ­leave ­behind ­those who do not ­embrace it. Although hos­pi­tal phy­si­cians ­often exam­ine radio­graph­ic imag­es and to a less­er ­degree pathol­o­gy ­slides ­along ­with the respon­sible radiol­o­gist or pathol­o­gist, ­this col­lab­o­ra­tion ­occurs ­less ­often ­than it ­should in ­office prac­tice. Teams of radiol­o­gists, nucle­ar med­i­cine phy­si­cians, and refer­ring phy­si­cians can use the Internet for the ­high-qual­ity trans­fer and dis­play of imag­es for simul­ta­ne­ous con­sul­ta­tion. People can now be con­nect­ed elec­tron­ical­ly in ­ways nev­er ­before pos­sible, and in the ­next gen­er­a­tion at ­speeds ­that ­will ­become a thou­sand ­times fast­er. Nuclear med­i­cine can ­take advan­tage of its ­unique posi­tion as an ear­ly adopt­er of dig­i­tal tech­nol­o­gy to ­lead the way as the prac­tice of med­i­cine is ­changed for­ev­er.