Nuclear medicine, research and innovation: BeForPharma at the AtomExpo in Sochi, Russia

“Nuclear for a better life” was the theme of AtomExpo 2019, the main international forum on the nuclear industry, in which Roberto La Forgia, CEO of BeForPharma, actively participated.

Two days of conferences and exhibitions were held in Sochi (Russia), from 15 to 16 April, bringing together representatives from nuclear companies, government agencies, international organizations and leading experts in the sector.

Among the AtomExpo themes – the sustainable development of cities, digital solutions and many others – nuclear medicine featured with a round table, “Nuclear medicine: trends, innovation and best practices“, moderated by Puglia’s own Dr La Forgia who is the only foreign researcher in the healthcare division of the Russian multinational Rosatom.

As well as taking stock of the status quo, operational solutions were proposed to trace a path of cooperation for future research in the field of radiometabolic therapy and molecular imaging.

Nuclear medicine is in fact one of the branches of the health sector seeing greatest development, with new methodologies in both diagnosis and treatment bringing tangible results in the fight against cancer. But a global commitment requires coordination, an area on which the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is also working, encouraging the involvement and a greater commitment from countries whose involvement in the nuclear sector is more recent, compared to Russian and US “veterans”.

The challenges of modern nuclear medicine were addressed in the round table from different points of view. Those participating in the debate were:

Alexander Shibanov (General Director, Rusatom Healthcare);

Emerson Soares Bernardes (PhD researcher, CNEN-IPEN);

Galina Kodina (Head of the Department of Radiation Technologies for Medical Purposes, PhD, Associate Professor, Burnasyan A.I. Federal Medical Biophysical Center of the Federal Medical Biological Agency),

Aidyn Küçük (Executive Director, Eczacıbaşı-Monrol),

Waldemar Kolodziej (Vice-President Eastern Region, Elekta),

Natalia Veselkova (PhD, Medical Advisor, GE Healthcare).

Such a multidisciplinary and multicultural approach brings together the strong Russian experience with those of countries like Brazil, Turkey and Italy.

(a cura di Mario Maffei – Comunicazione Sanitaria)