Nuclear Physics for Medicine
Particle accelerators, digital data acquisition, isotope technology, sophisticated detector systems with imaging software… You can find these instruments in a high tech physics research laboratory, or, if you look a bit closer, in a modern hospital as well.
Modern healthcare from diagnostics to therapy is largely based on physics. That is why NuPECC, the Nuclear Physics Expert Committee of the European Science Foundation compiled a report on the impact of nuclear physics in medicine. The report was presented in Brussels on 24 November. The status and future options of three major topics where nuclear physics play major role were discussed: hadrontherapy, medical imaging and radioisotope production.
Health, demographic changes and well-being are among the top policy priorities of the Europe 2020 strategy, and the report is a clear message to decision makers that modern science is the driving force behind the health industry.
More information can be found here.
