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Des Plaines, IL -- An estimated 15.7 million patients received nuclear imaging procedures in the United States in 2007, in 7,320 hospital and non-hospital sites, according to a report just released by IMV Medical Information Division. This represents a slight 3% increase in patient visits, from 15.2 million in 2006 to 15.7 million in 2007.

"Last year at this time, we observed a 12% downturn in patient visits from 17.2 million in 2005 to 15.2 million in 2006, which we attributed to several factors, including pre-certification requirements from health insurance companies as well as competing technologies, such as PET/CT oncology procedures," said Lorna Young, Senior Director, Market Research, IMV Medical Information Division. "Now, we are seeing a slight resurgence to 15.7 million in 2007, and based on year-to-date estimates, anticipate 2008 to close out at 16.0 million patient visits, which are still below 2005 levels."

The report describes trends in nuclear medicine patient visits by procedure type, radiopharmaceutical and pharmacological stress agent utilization, camera and computer installed base by manufacturer and year of installation, planned purchases, networking, and site operations characteristics. The report also covers adoption trends of new technologies including SPECT/CT. Highlights include:
- From 2006 to 2007, the total number of patients receiving myocardial ischemia/perfusion scans increased 5% from 8.54 million to 8.93 million.
- While dual-head SPECT cameras are the most preferred camera type being considered, comprising over two-thirds of the planned camera purchases, SPECT/CT is starting to emerge, comprising over 12% of the purchase plans.
- 45% of the nuclear imaging sites are non-hospitals (e.g. cardiology offices), and 55% are hospital-based. While hospitals comprise 55% of the sites, they account for two-thirds of the nuclear imaging procedures.
- The hospital and non-hospital sites are equally likely to be performing myocardial ischemia/perfusion studies, with ~89%
performing. Hospitals are more likely to be conducting the other study types than are non-hospitals, including bone scans, liver/hepatobiliary, renal, respiratory, infection/abscess, and tumor localization studies.
- Patient waiting times for nuclear imaging procedures have decreased, with the waiting times of 1+ days for scheduled outpatient procedures decreasing from 77% of the sites in 2003 to 52% of the sites in 2008. The data source for this report is IMV's 2007/08 Nuclear Medicine Census Database, which provides comprehensive profiles of nuclear medicine sites in the United States. The database can be licensed by qualified subscribers and includes contact and site-specific information. Applications of the database include market development, targeted marketing, lead generation, installed base marketing programs, sales territory deployment and competitive analysis.

IMV's 2008 Nuclear Medicine Market Summary Report is available with the database license, or as a separate purchase. The report compares nationwide trends from this recent census with the ten prior census surveys that IMV has conducted since 1990. For more information about the Nuclear Medicine Census Database and Market Summary Report, visit the corporate website at www.imvinfo.com or call 847-297-1404 to speak with a representative.

IMV Medical Information Division is a marketing research and consulting firm founded in 1977, specializing in medical imaging and other advanced healthcare technology markets. IMV's marketing consulting services, in combination with our
census databases of U.S. imaging sites with selected modalities, provide clients valuable assistance in strategic planning, customer satisfaction, product development and sales initiatives. IMV census databases and reports include interventional angiography, radiographic fluoroscopy, cardiac catheterization, CT, MRI, nuclear medicine, echocardiography, PET, radiation oncology, X-ray/DR/CR and mammography.