Minister of Public Health Launches New Services within the Nuclear Medicine Department at HMC

New Services at Nuclear Medicine Department in Hamad Medical Corporation

Doha, 7 November 2020: Her Excellency Dr. Hanan Mohamed Al Kuwari, Minister of Public Health, launched a range of new Nuclear Medicine services under the Clinical Imaging Department at the National Center for Cancer Care and Research of Hamad Medical Corporation. 

The new services demonstrate the department’s commitment to delivering international standards and to providing the best clinical imaging services for early detection and diagnosis of diseases in Qatar.

The new services include a second Positron Emission Tomography Scanner; a second hybrid imaging SPECT/CT Scanner; Positron Emission Mammography imaging; a Radio Pharmacy Laboratory; and Nuclear Medicine Therapy Unit.
The launch of these new services highlights HMC’s commitment to continually advancing the quality of its services and keeping pace with the highest international standards. Nuclear Medicine is an integral part of clinical imaging and it plays a major role in the diagnosis and early detection of diseases. 

The launch of these new services in HMC’s Nuclear Medicine Department is a significant milestone for Qatar’s healthcare sector which will reduce wait times, improve quality of care, and lead to improved patient outcomes. 
Nuclear medicine is a specialized area of radiology that uses very small amounts of radioactive materials, or radiopharmaceuticals, to examine organ function and structure. Nuclear imaging enables visualization of organ and tissue structure as well as function.

Dr. Maryam Al Kuwari, Chief Radiologist for Molecular Imaging and Nuclear Medicine, HMC describes the launch of the new services as part of a strategy to extend the Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging services offered at HMC to make them more accessible for patients. “Nuclear medicine scans are used to diagnose many medical conditions and diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular diseases and neurological diseases. It is important that we have the very latest state-of-the-art equipment in order to diagnose diseases with accurate precision, because different types of nuclear medicine equipment are designed for use in conjunction with specific radioisotopes for a variety of imaging purposes.”

“The installation of a second PET/CT at the Nuclear Medicine Department will assist our cardiologists in selecting the right patients for intervention and invasive procedures. Patients with cancer and coronary artery diseases in Qatar will also receive improved high standards of care upon the completion of these new state-of-the-art installations. The second PET/CT will also allow our teams to undertake more PET/CT exams in oncology, thereby reducing the wait time for patients and allowing timely treatment,” says Dr. Al Kuwari.

The availability of Positron Emission Mammography (PEM) will improve sensitivity for the detection of recurrence in breast cancer patients post-surgery and radiotherapy. The use of the PEM will also improve the screening of breast cancer in females with equivocal conventional mammography and inconclusive MRI exams and those with dense breasts. Also, the modern Radio Pharmacy Laboratory will achieve international standards for radiation safety and quality control in nuclear medicine which is an important aspect for attaining professional accreditation. 

The new hybrid imaging SPECT/CT Scanner will improve diagnostic accuracy by fusing functional images from nuclear medicine and structural images from conventional CT in the same scan session. This is now the standard of care for localization and characterization of functional abnormalities. With the new advanced SPECT/CTs for nuclear medicine imaging, HMC is now in line with recommendations of international professional organizations. 

“The Nuclear Medicine Department prides itself on launching these new services, which demonstrate HMC’s commitment to delivering the best healthcare services to patients in Qatar,” Dr. Al Kuwari adds.

Source: HMC