What does the Nuclear Medicine Physicist do?
The physicist is a key member of the nuclear medicine team and has specific responsibilities within it – largely revolving around safety, quality assurance and research. Depending on the size of department, there may be one, two, or more physicists working within the unit. The safety issues relate mainly to radiation protection of both patients and staff, which is prescribed by national regulations. Quality assurance relates to both the performance of key equipment (hardware and software), as well as procedural factors contributing to overall quality of service. All physicists will have responsibility for new developments (e.g. introduction of new techniques proven elsewhere) and most will have a substantial involvement in original research. This brief introduction to nuclear medicine, and the physicist’s role within it, is simply designed to whet your appetite. If you wish to find out more, a recent document produced jointly by the British Nuclear Medicine Society (BNMS), British Inst
