SINGAPORE: Nuclear medicine is increasingly being used since it was first introduced in Singapore one and a half years ago.

Commonly used in tandem with advanced scanning techniques like the Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scan at many hospitals here, nuclear medicine relies on the use of radioactive elements in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases.

There are currently 10 types of nuclear medicine worldwide with 50 new types under development.Raffles Hospital aims to use new types of nuclear medicine to diagnose diseases like heart diseases.

At Raffles Hospital, each scan costs S$2,000. Patients can use their Medisave to pay for the scans and can claim up to S$600 each year.

Doctors at the hospital have seen a 40 per cent increase in the number of patients who are treated using nuclear medicine and these doctors say using nuclear medicine is 80 per cent more accurate than traditional biopsies.

"We are able to delve into the molecular nature so that means we are able to pick up as small as 0.4, 0.5 cm in detecting cancer at an earlier stage as compared to other type of imaging scans," said Dr Andrew Tan, a specialist on nuclear medicine at Raffles Hospital.

The rest is here:

Nuclear medicine usage on the rise in Singapore