The Group held its most recent meeting at the Lambeth offices of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain. Items of general interest are summarised below.
Transportation of Excepted Packages The new road transport regulations contain some changes regarding excepted packages (such as the limit for 99mTc being lowered to 400 MBq) but have also brought to light some pre-existing regulations which had not been widely appreciated. Gerry Holden of Gravatom Engineering Systems Limited attended our meeting, as did Amanda Moreton, physicist at Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital (she prepared a very useful compilation of changes in transport regulations for the IPEM Radiation Protection Special Interest Group newsletter). The basic message is that one cannot simply use any old cardboard box that happens to be lying around. Under strict interpretation, there must be procurement specifications for the type of box, a design safety report, packaging and labelling instructions, and a certificate of approval. While the requirements are not as stringent as for Type A, the packaging must be able to withstand temperatures between +38oC and -40oC and pressures between 60 and 110 kPa (though not fire or being dropped from a great height). Many people re-use Type A cardboard boxes for shipping as excepted packages. The UKRG will attempt to obtain and disseminate appropriate guidance on the level of compliance which should satisfy the Department for Transport.
Education and Certification of Radiopharmaceutical Scientists
The radiopharmacy component of the National Occupational Standards for Health Care Scientists (NOSHCS), which are being prepared for the Department of Health, is now undergoing field testing. The recent field testing of the nuclear medicine component has revealed a fair degree of confusion about interpretation of standards, making meaningful comment difficult.
In the related NHS initiative of Agenda for Change, evaluation of jobs for assignment to a common pay spine is beginning. For small specialties such as ours this will be appraised locally. However, it is hoped that the radiopharmacist posts at the hospitals undergoing early implementation will set a favourable standard for the rest of the country.
Radiopharmacy Software Packages The development of two commercial software packages, respectively by Atalanta and Veenstra/Bright Technologies, is progressing and evaluation in UK centres will commence shortly. For information please contact sean.blencowe@atalanta-consulting.co.uk or stephen@brightec.fsnet.co.uk (Stephen Anderson).
Reports of Problems Associated with Radiopharmaceuticals The latest tabulation should be included with this Newsletter. These reports are now available electronically and will be posted on the UKRG web site. The summary for the year 2001 will appear imminently in the European Journal of Nuclear Medicine and the 2002 compilation is in preparation.
Education and Training The Postgraduate Course in Radiopharmacy was offered at King's College London during the week commencing 7 April with approximately 30 attendees from a variety of backgrounds, including pharmacy, medicine, and a number of people from industry.
Positron Emission Tomography The mildly favourable Health Technology Board of NHS-Scotland revised assessment of the use of PET in cancer management has been followed by a forceful endorsement of PET by the Intercollegiate Standing Committee on Nuclear Medicine, issued recently by the Royal College of Physicians of London (see summary at www.rcplondon.ac.uk). The report recommends that state-of-the-art dedicated PET camera facilities should be established in at least 15 sites within the UK in the next 3-5 years, and in at least 40-60 sites in the next 10 years. Each cancer network should have access to a dedicated PET facility attached to a radiotracer production facility, to enable the full range of PET tracers to be available on at least one site within the network. The source of funding for capital costs remains to be seen, but operating costs should be included in the budgets of the cancer networks, cardiac, and neurology services as appropriate. Importantly, government funding is required in training programmes for PET radiochemists and cyclotron engineers.
Charles Sampson Travel Award
The recipient of this year's travel award to attend the 11th European Symposium on Radiopharmacy and Radiopharmaceuticals in Innsbruck was Uzma Choudhry. Her report on the Symposium follows:
"I am a final year PhD student doing my research at University of Kent and Canterbury. I went to give an oral presentation at the 11th European Symposium on Radiopharmacy and Radiopharmaceuticals, which was very well organised in Innsbruck, Austria. It was my first experience of giving an oral presentation outside England. I got a lot of positive responses to my talk and was approached by many delegates who were extremely interested in my research. I enjoyed the conference a lot as it gave me a chance to meet people in my field from all around the world. It was also a special occasion as Radiopharmacology was launched at the First International Symposium on Radiopharmacology in Innsbruck 25 years ago. The timetable for the oral presentations was good as it was roughly divided into Therapy, Molecular Biology, PET, Radiopharmacy, Radiopharmaceuticals in drug development, and Radiopharmacology sessions. Also, the posters presented were very good indeed. The conference was well organised not just scientifically but also socially. The Alpine Experience was a great evening excursion, but I must say that some of the other social events were arranged at the time of the oral presentations so I didn't get a chance to attend events such as the city tour, city walk, etc. Conference lunches and dinners were also very well organised and it gave every one a chance to mingle with the other attendees.
"Overall, it was a wonderful experience I would really like to thank BNMS for the Charles Sampson Award which helped toward my travel funding and I hope they will remember me in future conferences too!!!"
Note from the Editor The editor, Jim Ballinger, will have a new address, effective 07 May: Nuclear Medicine, Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital, St Thomas Street, London SE1 9RT, phone 0207 955 4595, fax 0207 955 2802, e-mail: james.ballinger@gstt.nhs.uk (ever so posh!)!