Medical Imaging Informatics in Nuclear Medicine

Medical imaging informatics is gaining importance in medicine both in clinical practice and in scientific research. Besides radiology, nuclear medicine is also a major stakeholder in medical imaging informatics because of the variety of available imaging modalities and the imaging-oriented operation of this specialization. The amount of data produced by imaging modalities and other diagnostic devices per exam is growing steadily together with the number of exams performed, resulting in a data explosion that provides major opportunities for data analytics and data mining in big data projects. However, it can also fuse problems in storage, distribution, review, and interpretation of the enormous amounts of clinical (image) data while maintaining high-quality patient care. To tackle these problems, standardization, structuring, and automation are crucial. As one of the major producers of medical imaging data, nuclear medicine should stay at the forefront of these developments.