“In (country) physician is only allowed to practice on one specialty at the time
and nuclear medicine is a different specialty than radiology and cardiology.
Nuclear physicians, including dual-certified nuke-rads are not allowed to
practice more than one specialty. A nuclear physician cannot get reimbursed
for radiological studies. The radiologist cannot get reimbursed for nuclear
studies. The cardiologist cannot get reimbursed for interpreting cardiac
nuclear images. Having this arrangement greatly protects the smaller
specialties such as nuclear medicine. A physician who does nuclear medicine
only does nuclear medicine and no physician of other specialties practice
nuclear medicine on a part-time basis.
It is not only in (country) that this arrangement exists. In fact, a similar if not
identical arrangement exists in Japan, China, India, most of Europe (if not all
Europe according to my knowledge). I believe that similar arrangements also
exist in the Middle East, South America, and Australia. Adding all of the
aforementioned countries or regions, these account to close to 80% of the
world's population. Specifically in France, there are approximately 1100 pure
nuclear physicians in a country with approximately 65 million inhabitants.
My colleagues prefer to attend the European Association of Nuclear Medicine
meetings to those of the SNM. In Europe, nuclear medicine is more advanced
than in North America, particularly in radionuclide therapy and PET with other
radioisotopes than FDG.
I have even heard of many radiologists pushing for nuclear medicine to fade
into a subspecialty of radiology. We should fight against that totally
undesirable proposition. We should push to increase the academic standards
and patient standard of care of nuclear medicine. In Canada and in Europe,
nuclear medicine is a four year residency after the internship year (5 years of
post-graduate studies). It is totally unacceptable to reduce the academic
standards of a specialty by piggy-backing less than one year of training into
another specialty. There is more to nuclear medicine than just imaging.”
and nuclear medicine is a different specialty than radiology and cardiology.
Nuclear physicians, including dual-certified nuke-rads are not allowed to
practice more than one specialty. A nuclear physician cannot get reimbursed
for radiological studies. The radiologist cannot get reimbursed for nuclear
studies. The cardiologist cannot get reimbursed for interpreting cardiac
nuclear images. Having this arrangement greatly protects the smaller
specialties such as nuclear medicine. A physician who does nuclear medicine
only does nuclear medicine and no physician of other specialties practice
nuclear medicine on a part-time basis.
It is not only in (country) that this arrangement exists. In fact, a similar if not
identical arrangement exists in Japan, China, India, most of Europe (if not all
Europe according to my knowledge). I believe that similar arrangements also
exist in the Middle East, South America, and Australia. Adding all of the
aforementioned countries or regions, these account to close to 80% of the
world's population. Specifically in France, there are approximately 1100 pure
nuclear physicians in a country with approximately 65 million inhabitants.
My colleagues prefer to attend the European Association of Nuclear Medicine
meetings to those of the SNM. In Europe, nuclear medicine is more advanced
than in North America, particularly in radionuclide therapy and PET with other
radioisotopes than FDG.
I have even heard of many radiologists pushing for nuclear medicine to fade
into a subspecialty of radiology. We should fight against that totally
undesirable proposition. We should push to increase the academic standards
and patient standard of care of nuclear medicine. In Canada and in Europe,
nuclear medicine is a four year residency after the internship year (5 years of
post-graduate studies). It is totally unacceptable to reduce the academic
standards of a specialty by piggy-backing less than one year of training into
another specialty. There is more to nuclear medicine than just imaging.”
Opinion of a Nuclear Medicine Physician - 101
