Quebec’s Ministry of Health and Social Services announced in December 2017 that it was undertaking the modernization of Nuclear Medicine Services at Montreal’s Sacré-Cœur Hospital. One important step in this process has already been taken: the purchase of a latest-generation PET-CT digital scanner.
Thanks to the generosity of donors, the Foundation contributed $3 million (the Hospital will provide $1.6 million) toward this equipment purchase, including all the instruments and software required to analyze the resulting images.
This government investment made it possible to move the Nuclear Medicine Service to a new wing of the Hospital, with the space needed to install and make full use of the new PET-CT camera. The planning stages are moving along quickly and construction is slated to start in late 2019, which should allow patients to begin benefitting from this new equipment in the autumn of 2020.
This camera will have many clinical uses. In oncology, it will allow more accurate assessment of cancers, better evaluation of responses to treatment, as well as determining the presence or absence of relapses during the follow-up of patients treated for several types of cancer. In neurology, it will now be easier to differentiate different types of dementias in order to help clinicians target the most appropriate treatment plans. In addition, it will also be possible to evaluate systemic infections, assess the viability of cardiac tissues, and much more.