Teaching Nuclear Medicine with Resource Constraints and stiff Competition

Dr C S Bal MBBS,MD, DRM, DNB, MA (Economics)

Professor Department of Nuclear Medicine

All India Institute of Medical SciencesNew Delhi, INDIA

csbal@hotmail.com

Teaching Nuclear Medicine

• Inputs Required• Good Academic Institution: Teaching,

Research and Patient Care• Good Academic Nuclear Medicine

Department• Faculties who are interested in teaching

and Training

Good Academic Nuclear Medicine Department

• Physicians, Physicists, Radiopharmacists and Technical Staffs

• Well Planned Curriculum• Fair Assessment system and healthy

environment to debate and discuss issues• Constant encouragement to students to

excell• Appropriately reward and punishment

system

Competition

• “The Law of Competition is hard for an individual but ensures the survival of the fittest”– In reality, however competition aids in breeding

excellence

• For example, MN physicians never think in terms of Anatomy, however with advent of SPECT/CT, PET/CT and now PET/MR they are forced to relearn their Anatomy

• After all, any smart guy can memorize structures easily

Training-of-Trainers

• The trainers are few:• In most of the Asian countries no formal

training programs exist for medical physicist especially trained in NM physics

• More dismal picture for radiochemists/radiopharmacists

• Sparse program for NM Physicians

Immediate Remedial Measures• NM practice is capital intensive, needs huge initial

investments with little chance of break-even in near future

• Thus national Governments shall be encouraged to invest in human resource development in the field of NM

• PPP with Govts consents to lend helping hand from Govt servants on honorarium- basis

• Private hospitals should be encouraged to invest in NM and National Boards affiliate them to teach NM

• Universities should built joint courses/training programs in the model of “Industries- IITs” format to teach chemists to take carrier in radiochemistry/ radiopharmacy

Immediate Remedial Measures

• Regulatory authorities of each country should take up the responsibility to train NM physicists

• Every teaching hospital with NM Facility should take up the responsibility to train technologists

• They should be jointly accredited by NM societies and the regulatory authorities /universities

Immediate Remedial Measures

• “We have at this time a system based on the key resource i.e. INFORMATION which is not only renewable but also self generating”

• WWW and Internet has killed time and space• Distant learning is key to tide over present constraints• NM personnel should be allowed to teach and train less

experienced colleagues and students from other hospitals with nominal fee

• IAEA can play a bigger role taking the challenge in developing human resources on SOS basis.

Conclusions

• “We might drown in , but I am sure we shall never run out”

Thanks