PET-CT Centre revamps for service upgrade
Following years of preparation and six months of comprehensive renovation, the Positron Emission Tomography Centre of the Department of Nuclear Medicine at Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital (PYNEH) resumed service at the end of January. This project represents not merely a hardware upgrade, but also a significant enhancement of medical services achieved through teamwork within a limited space.
The centre has been in service since 2012, the equipment had operated for over a decade. To meet the growing demand for Positron Emission Tomography-Computed Tomography (PET-CT) scan services, the team replaced the old scanner with the latest model available in Greater China. "Our biggest challenge was to carry out ‘in-situ replacement' while operating with only one scanner. Cancer patients cannot wait, and service suspension was not an option," states Dr Frankie Choi, Deputising Consultant in-charge of the Nuclear Medicine Department of PYNEH. To overcome this, the team diverted patients to other hospitals during the renovation. Colleagues volunteered to work across clusters even on weekends, to minimise the impact on service.
Faster scans to handle increased service volume
The new PET-CT scanner significantly accelerates the scanning speed, reducing each patient's scan time by half while simultaneously reducing the dosage of radioactive tracer by a quarter. Artificial intelligence ensures precise patient positioning, eliminating the need for complex manual adjustments. The workflow become smoother and more efficient, greatly enhancing efficiency and patient experience.
To optimise the performance of the scanner, Dr Choi and his team strictly adhering to radiation protection and infection control protocols, in the meanwhile, they redesigned the layout within a limited space. By shortening non-essential corridor space and enhancing service flows, they streamlined the transit routes for patients, medical staff, and radioactive materials. This allowed the number of patient rest rooms to increase from four to eight to meet future service demand.
Enhanced radiation protection to safeguard staff safety
The expected growth in service volume heightens the radiation risks faced by staff. "We must fully protect our colleagues' occupational safety and health, keeping their radiation exposure at a low level,' emphasises Dr Choi. Since PYNEH obtained the China's International Hospital Accreditation Standards (2021 Version) in December 2024, the department has continued adopting the best practices from the Mainland in radiation safety management, and equipment upgrades to safeguard staff health. This includes a real-time, all-round radiation monitoring system – the first of its kind in public hospitals – to provide 24-hour radiation surveillance. This system displays radiation readings from seven sites in real time, issues instant alerts when exposure levels exceed safety threshold, thereby enhancing staff's safety awareness.
Additionally, the department introduced custom-designed lead-shielded injection equipment, allowing colleagues to verify, calibrate and administer radiopharmaceuticals with minimal patient contact, so as to reduce their radiation exposure risks.
With the new equipment now in operation, the service capacity is projected to increase by over 33% in the first year, enabling more than 1,000 additional scans. Dr Choi noted that this hardware upgrade is just the beginning. He hopes to progressively enhance facilities annually, expanding service capacity and the variety of radiopharmaceuticals to address diverse patient needs.
