Central Nuclear Pharmacy, Our lost Treasure | ||||
| Egyptian Journal Nuclear Medicine | ||||
| Article 1, Volume 5, Issue 5, June 2012, Page 1-4 PDF (226.98 K) | ||||
| Document Type: Editorial | ||||
| DOI: 10.21608/egyjnm.2012.5478 | ||||
 View on SCiNiTO | ||||
| Author | ||||
| Tamir Bayomy* | ||||
| Nuclear Medicine Department, King Hamad University Hospital, Kingdom of Bahrain | ||||
| Abstract | ||||
| Commercial central radiopharmacy is a mature and practical concept in the developed countries long time ago. However, in the developing ones where its importance and feasibility is much more valid, this concept is not yet well established. Since the running cost of nuclear medicine procedures is being considered the main obstacle of the NM progress in any developing country, it is clear that the central radiopharmacy can lead the NM progress and market in these countries(1). What is the central radiopharmacy? It is a highly specialized nuclear pharmacy which is able to produce and distribute calibrated, GMP complied and safe single radiopharmacetical doses to the NM facilities in its geographical area in a routine and scheduled timetables. A centralized nuclear pharmacy in any region having reasonable transportation facilities can lead to significant savings of money and personnel time. It must be shared by many, if not all, hospitals in a given region; otherwise it may not be feasible to run it economically. The scope of the central radiopharmacy Services can vary according to the capacity and needs of the served institutes. It can be assigned for PET and SPECT radiotracers or to only one of theses categories. What can a central radiopharmacy add to our nuclear medicine community? Cost Effectiveness It is well known to the NM practitioners that the main challenges in this field are not the initial investments on the machines, hot lab and radiation protection tools, but the running cost of radiopharmaceuticals and cold kits that are not usually complying with the number of patient procedures performed. The loss of Tc-99m activities that varies between 50% in busy institutes and 85% in low profile ones increase the cost of the NM procedures that limits the utilization of the NM technology due to this high cost in addition to the irregular availability of the tracers (Moly Crisis)(2). With the central radiopharmacy the cost can be reduced by up to 70% which will reduced the overall cost of the procedure what will encourage the referring physician to rely on the NM scans for their patients’ diagnosis. | ||||
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