The Deputy Director General (DDG) and Head of the Department of Technical Cooperation Dazhu Yang has signed recently two Practical Arrangements (PA)-the first with the King Hussein Cancer Center (KHCC) in Jordan, and the second with the Chonnam National University Medical School and Hospitals (CNUMSH) in Korea-to foster collaboration for the development and implementation of the IAEA Curricula for Nuclear Medicine Professionals (ICNMP). The first Practical Arrangement was signed on 11 November, and the second on 17 November.
The Practical Arrangements include three primary areas of collaboration: Direct training of nuclear medicine professionals: organization of meetings and workshops on clinical practices: and development of the ICNMP, a state-of-the-art training programme which aims to improve, broaden and continuously update the knowledge of nuclear medicine professionals around the world.
Established by a Royal Decree in 1997 to combat cancer in Jordan and throughout the Middle East region, the King Hussein Cancer Centre (KHCC) is an independent, non-governmental, not-for-profit institution whose staff of 800 oncologists and nurses treats over 3,500 new patients each year. Named for the late King Hussein, who succumbed to non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in 1999, the Centre employs a 'comprehensive cancer care' approach, from prevention and early detection, through diagnosis and treatment, and all the way to palliative care.
The Republic of Korea's Chonnam National University Hospital was established in Gwangju, in 1910 with the explicit goal of providing high-quality educated, facilitating new clinical research, and providing patient care. The largest healthcare facility in the southwest region of the Republic of Korea, Chonnam National University Hospital sees and treats approximately 3,000 outpatients daily.
Together with the IAEA's Department of Nuclear Applications and seven prominent healthcare centres in the Asia and the Pacific region, professionals at the King Hussein Centre and Chonnam National University Hospital will help develop elements of the new ICNMP training programme, namely the Hybrid Imaging, Nuclear Cardiology, and Therapeutic Nuclear Medicine modules of the curriculum.
Background
Nuclear medicine is an area of medicine involves radionuclides, which plays an important role in many diseases, in particular in cancer and cardiovascular diseases.
In many Member States in Asia and the Pacific region, the delivery of nuclear medicine services is challenging. The availability of highly qualified nuclear medicine practitioners is often a limiting factor, as it is the most vital element in sustaining nuclear medicine services in countries with existing facilities.
Consequently, such services in the region require long term and sustainable support for human resources development for nuclear medicine professionals. In order to deliver systematic, sustainable, harmonized and standardized training; and to improve quality, efficiency and effectiveness in nuclear medicine professional human resource development, the newly established ICNMP in Asia and the Pacific region offers a new approach, developed within a framework of well-defined guiding principles. The ICNMP provides a structured and continuous professional training programme through Practical Arrangements Agreements with regional prominent training centres that have adequate infrastructure and the capabilities to run training activities according to predefined criteria and syllabi of the ICNMP.
