Why my job will not exist in 20 years.

After going to my conference this weekend at Cedars-Sinai I realize my job will not exist in 20 years. Here are the reasons why:

1: The time frame for technological research and development is a shorter cycle than it is for human cellular biology and pharmacology. Technological issues are what other modalities are trying to overcome in providing similar clinical information as can be gained from nuc med studies. Whereas nuc med needs advances to be made in our understanding of the body on a cellular level, its physiology and pharmacology. The pace at which these fields advance is different. Technological breakthroughs will happen first.

2: An CT or xray exam use the machine to make the radiation for the test. MRI and ultrasound originate their diagnostic "source" as well. Nuclear medicine requires us to take radioactive material and place it in your body. And the isotope for 80% of all, ALL, nuc med studies is not produced in the US. It is a by-product of creating highly enriched uranium. A nuclear weapons component. This comes to the US from Canada, South Africa, France and Belgium. That is it. This is not a safe, stable or sustainable supply chain for the essential material needed.

And tying into the first reason, without a huge shift in technology there will be no development of other suitable nuclides for imaging. We as a profession have been too happy with the status quo. And it is changing at a pace faster than we adapt.

3: The other imaging modalities are going to provide anatomical and physiological information from the same scan sooner and with more clarity than nuc med. And with less radiation exposure to the patient. And in a shorter amount of time per test.

4: Nuclear medicine lacks unified protocols across all the exams. The same test is done differently at every institution. This lack of standardization creates too large of a variability in the finished product we produce for the interpreting and referring physicians. "More than one way to skin a cat" in this case it not a good business model.

The other modalities have their limitations as well, but they are more easily over come and have more research dollars/man hours devoted to solving them. So if you are thinking of becoming involved at the technologist level in medical imaging, I'd say to take a pass on becoming a nuclear medicine tech.