Symposium preview : Nuclear medicine in developing nations

When IAEA was established as an autonomous member of the United Nations family in 1957, a prominent assignment was to "seek to accelerate and enlarge the contribution of atomic energy to peace, health and prosperity throughout the world". The inclusion of "health" reflected an important fact — that medical uses of radiation and radionuclides were among the first and most widespread applications of "atomic energy". Today because of their diversity radiation and radionuclides for medical and biological purposes are used in more countries and in more laboratories than any other application of atomic energy. This diversity has established the character of the Agency's programme in the field: Instead of a few large projects, many small activities are supported, tailored to the needs and wishes of individual countries, particularly developing ones. Support takes a number of forms — seminars, training courses, workshops, research contracts, and technical assistance projects, for example. Throughout the programme, close collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) and other intergovernmental agencies has been maintained, while emphasis has been placed on solving the problems of a region in the region itself.