FARMINGTON – Nuclear medicine specialists received recognition between Oct. 2 and 8 during National Nuclear Medicine Week. Nuclear medicine specialists use safe, painless and cost-effective techniques to image the body and treat disease.

Franklin Memorial Hospital’s Radiology Department employs two full-time certified nuclear medicine technologists, Lydia Daigle and Leslie Tainter, who perform nuclear medicine imaging procedures that are essential in many medical specialties, from pediatrics to cardiology to psychiatry.

Nuclear medicine imaging uses small amounts of radioactive materials, which are introduced into the body by injection, swallowing or inhalation, and later detected by a special camera that works with computers to provide precise pictures of the area of the body being imaged. The imaging provides doctors with information about organ structure and function.

“It is a way to gather medical information that would otherwise be unavailable, require surgery or necessitate more expensive diagnostic tests,” said Kim Turner, FMH radiology director. “Furthermore, nuclear medicine procedures are among the safest diagnostic imaging exams available.”

Nuclear medicine differs from x-ray, ultrasound or other diagnostic tests because it determines the presence of disease based upon biological changes rather than changes in anatomy.

Franklin Memorial Hospital offers nuclear medicine services from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

According to Turner, Franklin Memorial Hospital also hosts a clinical internship in nuclear medicine each year for a student of Clark F. Miller School of Radiologic Technology at Central Maine Medical Center School in Lewiston, an accredited nuclear medicine technology program.

For more information, contact the Radiology Department at 779-2370 or 1-800-398-6031, extension 2370.