Today, Minister of Defence Aleksandar Vulin visited a reconstructed part of the Institute for Nuclear Medicine of the Military Medical Academy which has been equipped with two state-of-the-art gamma cameras – devices used for precise diagnostics of different illnesses, particularly malignant ones.

As the minister of defence stressed, the Military Medical Academy certainly is one of our most respected health establishments, but in order to remain as such, it requires the people and investments in equipment.

By starting the use of the gamma camera, final preparations for its work, and completion of the final training phase and by offering an opportunity to our patients to start scheduling gamma camera examinations as soon as of Monday, we have made the Military Medical Academy even more modern and better equipped. The gamma camera is at the very top in the world. What other institutes of the world possess is now possessed by our Military Medical Academy – said Minister Vulin adding that investments in health care and in military health care “always pays back and always yields results”.

- We have proved to be a good, tough, and very efficient health care system in our fight against the pandemic, among other, because we have continuously invested in our military health care system. Last year we admitted some 500 nurses, doctors, non-medical staff in our military health care system, preparing ourselves for everything that might happen to us. Now as well, we continue investing, equipping and we can say that the Military Medical Academy returns to its rightful place and where the military health system should be – among the best, the best equipped, the best trained and the most educated. The Military Medical Academy is always at disposal to the military insured, and the ones with civilian insurance. During the fight against COVID, it operated as a non-COVID hospital, a hospital for all the patients and it still operates in that manner – the minister of defence underlined and stated that every investment in the Military Medical Academy was an investment in the quality of life of all the citizens of Serbia.

Head of Military Medical Academy Colonel Miroslav Vukosavljević MD stressed that the new diagnostic device SPECT CT, one of the rare devices in the country, and the first one in Belgrade, would enable complete diagnostic range of tests in the Institute for Nuclear Medicine.

By starting its use, we have completed the diagnostic range of services offered by the Military Medical Academy, to satisfaction and joy of our patients. We waited for the renovation having in mind that those are very sensitive devices which require licences for ionic radiation both from the Agency and the Institute for Nuclear Sciences “Vinča”. We have obtained all that – said Colonel Vukosavljević.

Speaking about the importance of the renovation and equipment with the gamma cameras, Head of the Institute for Nuclear Medicine of the MMA Colonel Dragan Pucar MD said that it was state-of-the-art diagnostics which is highly advanced in the world and that in that moment we could tackle the most difficult medical issue”.

- We have been provided with the opportunity, using SPECT study to obtain not only the planar image cross-section, to arrive at the precise localisation of the disease, most often with oncological patients. We have also been given an opportunity to use a hybrid camera with even better resolution which overlaps the images obtained by CT and SPECT – Dr Pucar highlighted.

The value of the investment, which includes procurement of new medical devices and reconstruction of part of the Institute for Nuclear Medicine of the MMA, covering the surface of 245 square meters, amounts to 150 million RSD.

The Gamma camera is the fundamental device to perform scintigraphy – painless, non-invasive diagnostic method during which some parts of body are exposed to gamma rays, and detection of accumulated gamma radiation helps monitor and detect disorders in an organism. Latest devices (two head gamma cameras - SPECT - Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography) by providing more sensitive images of organs’ cross-section provide swifter and more precise diagnosis in numerous clinical disciplines – cardiology, endocrinology, oncology, nephron-urology, gastroenterohepatology, neurology.

One of the gamma cameras in the Institute possesses a radiological device (CT) as well which enables more precise localisation of the changes observed by SPECT. Combining both techniques enables fusion images that provide both data on function (SPECT) and data on anatomy (CT).

This modern nuclear-medicine method is characterised by exposure to very small amount of radiation and it is considered to be priceless for early diagnostics and successful treatment.

The tour was attended by State Secretary in the Ministry of Defence Bojan Jocić and Head of Military Health Department Major General Uglješa Jovičić.