Department of Nuclear Medicine @ Ospedale San Raffaele
Nuclear Medicine Centre of the San Raffaele Research Hospital is a worldwide recognized Centre with multidisciplinary top-level expertise for functional imaging, particularly focused on the diagnosis of oncological patients.
Nuclear Medicine and particularly PET modality is a functional imaging enabled to image specific molecules and targets (cellular and molecular events). To obtain those images, there is a very complex department that extends over 1500m2 with an interdisciplinary staff.
The staff is composed of:
- 14 Nuclear Medicine Physicians
- 1 Neurology Physician
- 3 Physicists
- 1 Biomedical Engineer
- 20 Technologists
- 13 Radiochemists
- 7 Nurses
- 5 Research Fellows
Last year the Department performed approximately 8.000 SPECT clinical studies, including Myocardial studies, Bone scintigraphy, Renal scintigraphy studies, Thyroid scintigraphy and Sentinel lymph node scintigraphy studies, and approximately 7.500 PET clinical studies, the majority of them were Total body FDG for different oncological diseases, but also Total Body Choline for prostate cancer evaluation, and brain studies.
Our excellence in numbers
Conditions we take care of at this Department
Notable advanced technological equipment
It is a comprehensive Centre with a Cyclotron for the production of radioligands; it has Radiochemistry and radio-pharmacy labs dedicated to the synthesis of radiopharmaceuticals. It has to be emphasized that the labs are already settled according to GMP requirements for clinical research. PET laboratories are able to ensure the quality and safety of radiopharmaceuticals production for diagnostic use complying with national and European regulations.
The facility also has SPECT and PET tomographs for clinical studies. In particular, it has 4 SPECT tomographs: 2 dedicated to cardiological studies, and one SPECT/CT. It has 3 PET/CT and, a very innovative, fully hybrid PET/MRI system that was recently installed at the Unit, one of its kind in Italy. There are also 2 dedicated rooms for radio-immunotherapy.
Meet our team
Head physician
Luigi Agostino Gianolli
The San Raffaele Research Hospital is a highly specialized multi-disciplinary medical center of world importance, which embodies the integrity of the treatment, clinical research and teaching activities. San Raffaele provides treatment in all existing medical fields, which allows this center to take care of the most complex patient cases. The Hospital is recognized as IRCCS (Scientific Institute for Research and Healthcare) for its research in molecular medicine and innovative treatments application, such as the gene therapy.
The hospital is a multi-specialty center with more than 50 clinical specialties available and with over 1600 beds; it is accredited by the Italian National Health System to provide care to both public and private, Italian and international patients. In 2018 the San Raffaele Hospital performed over 51,000 patient admissions, 72,000 emergency room encounters and delivered over 1.5 million outpatient medical services. It is widely regarded as the most celebrated hospital in the country and among the most reputable medical centers in Europe. San Raffaele’s wards and operating theatres are equipped with the most advanced machines, such as PET, PET/CT, Gamma Knife, Cyber Knife, Rapid Arc, Tomotherapy. San Raffaele’s Radiotherapy Unit was the first place in Europe to install Tomotherapy in 2004. Nowadays this Unit confirms to be one of the most experienced worldwide; it has developed numerous protocols for cancer treatment of the prostate, breast, central nervous system, brain, liver, pancreas, gastrointestinal tract, lungs, and others. The Oncological Board of the Hospital consisting of diagnosticians, clinical oncologists, immunologists, surgeons and radiotherapists, hold weekly meetings to discuss oncological patients’ pathways in a multidisciplinary manner.
Beside its Cancer Center, San Raffaele is well-known for its medical know-how in cardiology and cardiac surgery, neurology and neurosurgery, gastroenterology and gastrointestinal tract surgery, liver surgery, pancreas surgery, transplant medicine, gynecology and obstetrics, urology, dermatology, ophthalmology, immunology, rheumatology and pediatrics.
San Raffaele is a pioneer in the field of gene medicine and treatment of rare immunologic and genetic diseases. San Raffaele Scientific Institute is where the first in the world gene therapy with stem cells was created, named Strimvelis, for patients affected by ADA-SCID syndrome.
The Research at the San Raffaele Hospital focuses on integrating basic, translational and clinical research to provide the most advanced care to the patients. It counts on over 1,500 scientists, working in state-of-the-art facilities covering a surface of 130,000 square meters, and have produced over 1,446 scientific publications in 2018. Research at San Raffaele aims at understanding the mechanisms underlying a variety of important human diseases and at identifying new targets and new therapeutic strategies to treat them.
The San Raffaele Hospital hosts the Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele, a fully private university with a complete Medical School (including specialty courses and residencies), Nursing School, a Psychology graduate and post-graduate programs, and Allied Health Professions School. The mission of the Vita-Salute San Raffaele University is to answer the question "Quid est homo?" in the belief that the human being is a biological, psychological and spiritual unicum. Since 2010 the San Raffaele Hospital also hosts the International MD Program, the only graduate program accredited to license Medical Doctors in both Europe and North America.
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