The use of personal computers in nuclear medicine

Consolidating personal computers (PCs) with nuclear medicine technology can create high computational power comparable with that produced by vendor-specific computer equipment, and at more affordable prices. The integration of a standard platform and operating system with a large installed base has enabled our department to maintain itself at the cutting edge of technology with minimal expense. Along with the savings from the purchase of PC software and hardware come the added advantage of rapid training of staff with minimal in-house effort, especially given the vast educational support in the general community. The integration of a standard platform and operating system with a large installed base has provided the nuclear medicine department with computational resources once unheard of because of economies of scale. The acceptance and integration of a pervasive, flexible technology into nuclear medicine have shown that state-of-the-art studies can be performed at low cost.