Aussie first: project to establish full body imaging
Associate Professor Paul Roach (left) and Professor Dale Bailey (right)
Quick whole-body scans will soon be a reality at Royal North Shore Hospital. Australia’s first Total Body Positron Emission Tomography (TB-PET) scanner will be established in a joint venture between NSLHD and the University of Sydney.
The machine, which will be a flagship of the Australian Government’s National Imaging Facility (NIF), is expected to be operational by 2022. The $15 million TB-PET scanner project will greatly enhance Australia’s biomedical imaging capabilities, deliver improved patient outcomes and boost medical and health science research programs. Associate Professor Paul Roach, Clinical Director of Nuclear Medicine at NSLHD and Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Sydney, said Royal North
Shore Hospital has a proud history of delivering world-class imaging to
a great outcome for all patients, especially children. “To have a facility in Australia where we can perform our clinical scans faster, produce superior quality images with less exposure to radiation in addition to having a dedicated research capability for researchers throughout Australia, will be a first.” Unlike traditional PET scanners, the TB-PET will capture the whole body in a single scan, allowing doctors to diagnose, guide treatment and track patient’s progress more accurately.
improve patient outcomes. “The TB-PET scanner will revolutionise patient care by
producing faster and higher quality clinical whole-body PET/CT scans compared with currently available scanners,” he said. “Patients will undergo their cancer scans in about a quarter of the time they take currently, with some scans taking only a couple of minutes. “There is also the benefit of lower radiation doses, which is
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