“COVID-19 Pandemic as stimulator to Re-Establish Nuclear Medicine as Clinical Specialty” based on a report of Prof. Dr. Ignasi Carrio

The COVID-19 pandemic represents one of the biggest challenges for healthcare systems of the recent past. Despite Nuclear Medicine not being in the eye of the COVID-19 storm our specialty was nevertheless significantly affected. All over the world recommendations on how to prepare Nuclear Medicine departments for the pandemic were published [1] [2] [3]. Despite timely preparation of the majority of institutions tremendous reductions of diagnostic procedures, therapies and procurement of radionuclides were reported [4] [5]. Not surprisingly the degree of severity varied geographically with areas such as Italy, Spain affected most and Singapore, South Korea among others being less affected[6]. The negative economic impact of COVID-19 is beyond any questions tremendous even too early to be reliably assessed [7]. Luckily in many parts worldwide the first peak has surpassed and many nuclear medicine departments are gearing back up to normality [8]. Despite the comparably overall successful management of the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany a second wave cannot be excluded. Accordingly we proactively reached out to our friends in Italy and Spain to learn from their experiences and to better understand what opportunities such a crisis might trigger. The following report provided by Professor Dr. Ignasi Carrio, Professor and Director of the Department of Nuclear Medicine, Hospital Sant Pau in Barcelona, and former Editor in Chief of the European Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, is a summary of a presentation given during a special session “COVID 19” during the virtual congress Nuklearmedizin 2020.

Publication History

Article published online:
17 December 2020

• References

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