What is PET / RM?
PET / MRI is a piece of equipment that brings together the two most powerful diagnostic imaging tools today: positron emission tomography and magnetic resonance imaging. In addition, it integrates anatomical, functional and molecular information. It will be installed thanks to the philanthropic collaboration of the Daniel Bravo Andreu Private Foundation.
It will be the first PET / MRI of the Catalan public healthcare network, with a character open to the whole territory and which positions the Catalan health system as a benchmark in precision medicine.
Regarding the diagnostic applications of PET / MRI, they reach very diverse specialties: the detection of prostate and gynecological cancers, oncoendocrinology, liver and brain tumor pathologies, breast, head and neck and colorectal cancers, cardiac neurodegenerative diseases, inflammatory diseases and other minority diseases.
What are the benefits of PET/RM?
- It is the best option for early and accurate detection of cancer and other diseases
- Improves diagnostic accuracy and allows you to select the best therapeutic option
- Reduces the number of tests required
- Avoid traveling to citizens (more convenience)
- It reduces the time of diagnosis and therefore the anxiety of the users
- Improves patient safety
- Reduces radiation by 60% compared to PET / TC
- Avoid overtreatment
- It will mean a paradigm shift in diagnostic imaging:
- It generates an improvement in health outcomes within the framework of universal health benefit
- Optimize resources in the Catalan public system
Why will it be installed at Bellvitge University Hospital?
- We were the first public center in the state to have a PET / TC
- We have the right space and the right technological and scientific environment for this new infrastructure
- We are a benchmark in complex innovative procedures nationwide and internationally in robotic surgery; cancer care; Diagnostic Imaging; heart area; neurology and neurosurgery and transplants, among others
- We are the tertiary reference hospital for the entire southern axis of Catalonia and provide healthcare coverage to more than 2 million inhabitants
- We perform the highest volume of diagnostic tests with nuclear medicine in the entire state
Holistic and future project
The new High Precision Diagnostic Center will generate a new paradigm in diagnostic imaging and nuclear medicine, a new model that takes as its backbone the patient's experience, from the preparation of the service to the its evaluation, to improve the safety and effectiveness of care.
In this sense, the Bellvitge Hospital is already working on the elaboration of the Patient Experience Project (adult and children), which includes, among other aspects, the participation of users in the design of the space that will host the Center. of High Precision Diagnosis, as well as the deployment of the model for the articulation of systems of follow-up and evaluation of the measures implemented of all the project centered in the improvement of the experience of the patient.
The incorporation of PET / MRI will also facilitate the development of new research and teaching projects, such as a new master's degree in Precision Diagnostic Medicine with the University of Barcelona (UB).
Reference environment
The Bellvitge Campus institutions are already, as a whole, a first-rate reference pole in the State in diagnosis and precision imaging treatment, with more than 4,000 m2 for two positron emission tomographies and computed tomography. (PET / TC), two single photon emission tomography and computed tomography (SPECT / TC), a gamma camera, a metabolic therapy room, three MRIs, six computed tomography (CT), three angiographs, seven ultrasounds, two mammograms , seven conventional X-ray rooms and future positron emission tomography and MRI (PET / MRI).
When is it scheduled to go live?
It is expected to become operational by the end of 2022 and can be used by around 3,500 users each year