Newsroom

The Radiation Safety Officer as an Advocate for Patient Safety

The medical RSO is in a position to influence patient safety in the institution. By a combination of self-education, faculty and staff education, collaboration with management, training, and surveys and inspections, the RSO can work towards developing a culture that considers control of patient radiation doses as important as minimizing radiation doses to occupational workers. Full Text

Classification of Infiltrated Injections During PET/CT Imaging Applying Deep Learning Technique

“Deep learning techniques have been found to perform extremely well in classification tasks in recent years. Use of TACs obtained from sensors to identify and classify infiltrations is also a very recent approach in PET dose infiltration research. Combination of both these techniques is a novel approach which may play a significant role in classifying infiltrated injection or identifying good injections.” Full Text

Why Quality Matters to Quantification: The Case for Monitoring Radiotracer Injections

The Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging’s Value Initiative highlighted Lara® in its most recent newsletter .

Nuclear Medicine Project: Injection Quality Varies Widely, Can Be Improved

Quality of Resulting PET/CT Image Depends on Center and Technologist Performing Radiopharmaceutical Injection. Press Release

Quality Improvement Initiatives to Assess and Improve PET/CT FDG Injection Infiltration Rates in Multiple Centers

“A QI approach with new technology can help centers measure infiltration rates, determine associative factors, implement interventions, and improve/sustain injection quality. Since PET/CT images help guide patient management, monitoring and improving radiotracer injection quality is important.” Full Text

A Retrospective Study of Physiologic Markers to Assess Radiopharmaceutical Infiltration Compared to External Injection Monitoring

“External injection monitoring seems to be the most reliable method for assessing PET radiopharmaceutical injection quality for individual patients.” Full Text

Use of a PACS Integrated Injection Monitoring Device to Increase Injection Quality and Infiltration Awareness

“Access to injection monitoring with PACS integration can lead to significant increases in radiology reporting of injection quality both to confirm good quality, and to indicate when an injection may have been compromised.” Full Text

Development of a Quantitatively-Based 18F-FDG Infiltration Classifier of Topically Applied Sensor Readings

“Preliminary findings suggest that this classifier, calibrated using quantitative static PET measurements, dramatically improves infiltration severity classification compared to qualitative image analysis.” Full Text

Collection of Real-Time Data with a Modular Detector System to Assess Injection Quality

“An external detector device may be used to ascertain that an injection is sufficient within only a 60-second acquisition.” Full Text (subscription required).

Technical Note: Characterization of technology to detect residual injection site radioactivity

“The performance of the sensor was adequate for identification of excessive residual activity at an injection site. Its ability to provide feedback may be useful as a quality control measure for nuclear medicine injections.” Full Text

NRC Advisory Committee to Reevaluate 1980 Nuclear Medicine Policy

Policy Exempted Reporting of Flawed Injections of Radiopharmaceuticals. Lucerno Dynamics CEO: Update Policy to Protect Patients, Improve Care, and Prevent. Press Release

Assessing and Reducing FDG-PET/CT Radiotracer Infiltrations: Lessons in Quality Improvement Sustainability

Carilion Clinic’s experience with Lucerno’s system for quality assurance for PET injections was featured in a poster presentation at the National Comprehensive Cancer Network meeting in Orlando.