The Royal Liverpool University Hospital is the first hospital in the North West to become home to a new state-of-the-art nuclear medicine camera, which will improve the way we scan our patients.

The Starguide SPECT-CT Gamma Camera will enable colleagues to take faster scans of a higher image quality, supporting us to improve diagnostic accuracy for our patients. It also has an enhanced design, which will improve comfort for patients whilst undergoing a scan.

An image showing a variety of colleagues in the Royal Liverpool Hospital's nuclear medicine department standing next to the new Starguide scanner. The people in the image are happy and there are balloons to celebrate the opening of the new equipment

This new technology will significantly enhance our research and development capability, as it will enable colleagues to perform dynamic SPECT acquisitions for the first time. SPECT, which means Single Photon Emission Computed tomography, is a type of 3D scan where two types of scans are combined to provide information about how different parts of the body are working, allowing clinicians to see functional and anatomical data fused together.

Elaine Noonan, Department Manager of Nuclear Medicine at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital, said: “I’m incredibly proud that as a department we join one of just a handful of hospitals around the country who have this type of equipment, which will considerably improve patient experience and their care.

“The enhanced image quality will enable colleagues to improve the accuracy of diagnosis, and because of its faster scan times, patients will experience less claustrophobia and a reduction in their radiation exposure.”