Status of nuclear medicine in Beijing: insights from the Beijing Quality Control Centre Survey 2005-2006

To evaluate the status of nuclear medicine in Beijing during 2005.

For evaluating the status, a survey was performed in September 2006 by postal questionnaires. Forty-two nuclear medicine departments in Beijing were investigated regarding staff, equipment and clinical applications.

Up to January 2007, thirty nuclear medicine departments had responded to our survey (response rate, 71.4%). These departments employed a total of 321 staff (141 physicians, 122 technicians, seven physicists, 22 nurses and 29 other staff) and were equipped with 47 scanners (42 SPECT, three PET, two PET/CT) before September 2006. During 2005, these departments completed 88 135 scans (84 734 SPECT, 3401 PET), 462 246 radioimmunoassays and 2228 radioisotope treatment (1288 Graves' disease, 268 thyroid cancer, 166 bone metastasis, 506 other). Furthermore, eight major hospitals hired more highly qualified staff with greater experience, such as professors or associate professors, and who had more clinical applications than did non-majors. The percentage of the departments that conducted daily and monthly quality control procedures was 43.3% and 40.0%, respectively.

Nuclear medicine departments in Beijing are on a considerable scale, but still have a long way to go in order to be well developed. Hospitals in Beijing should increase the number of physicists and perform QA/QC procedures more frequently.