The 2011 Nuclear Medicine Market Outlook Report showed an estimated 17 million nuclear medicine procedures were performed on SPECT or SPECT/CT cameras in the United States in 2010 compared with 17.2 million in 2007. Lorna Young, senior director of market research at IMV Medical Information Division, said the lack of growth could be due to preauthorization requirements from health insurance companies, competing technologies such as PET for bone studies and the availability of molybdenum, according to the release.
Both hospitals and nonhospitals rated financial pressure from reduced Medicare reimbursements and third-party payors as the biggest issue affecting their outlook on nuclear medicine.
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