Web Based Interactive Medical Imaging Applications for Teaching Nuclear Medicine

Medical Imaging is a multidisciplinary field which combines the knowledge of physics, mathematics, electrical and computer engineering in order to create images of anatomy and function of the human body for clinical and research purposes. The necessity to know the techniques of Medical Imaging in clinical and research laboratories has made Medical Imaging a major training area in Biomedical Engineering. The tremendous amount of information and rapid changes in the medical imaging field require teaching material to be more flexible to fit into the available class hours. Internet/Web-based education is one of the tools with which education is popularly delivered. Web-based interactive teaching models increase students learning gain in the field of medical imaging. We have developed interactive simulations and animation of Nuclear medicine imaging. These learning applications provide an easy understanding of the physics, principles and methods behind nuclear medicine to successfully deliver information for students. We simulated PET physics; the diverse mathematical derivations for image generation, recognition and reconstruction, and the parameters that influence resolution in a PET camera. The metabolism rate of glucose using [18F] fluoro-deoxy-glucose (FDG) with 3 compartmental models has been simulated. Animation of the major processes and routes in PET Reporter Gene Imaging using animal subject was also performed.