Speaker
Description
The deployment of advanced nuclear medicine technologies in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) remains severely limited by the high cost and complexity of current imaging systems, particularly positron emission tomography (PET) and total-body PET scanners. These systems require expensive scintillation materials, sophisticated electronics, and highly specialized infrastructure, creating barriers that prevent widespread adoption in resource-constrained settings. To address these challenges, there is a critical need for enabling technologies that focus on cost reduction, scalability, and material efficiency without compromising diagnostic performance. This work proposes a research program centered on the development of novel, low-cost scintillation materials through the study of luminescence mechanisms in ionic crystals, targeting the next generation of affordable PET systems.
Ionic crystals exhibit a remarkable combination of cross luminescence and spatially localized electronic excitation. These two properties could enable good timing while adding spatial information in bulk single crystals. The talk would discuss bottlenecks in current detector technology and highlight physical mechanisms of interest for the development of lower cost PET detectors.
| Track | Deployment of Nuclear Medicine in LMICs: Enabling Technologies |
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