Navigating the biomedical research system as a full participant: strategies and opportunities for the nuclear medicine technologist.

After a quick look at the New England Journal of Medicine, Radiology, or for that matter, The Journal of Nuclear Medicine (JNM), one is inundated with research reports. These range from esoteric and highly specialized methods to more broadly applied and clinically useful findings. Despite daily pressures to complete clinic workloads, train students, and manage overtime hours, many allied health professionals also find time to participate in research. As the field of nuclear medicine technology evolves, this research can be equipment-based, such as validating scatter correction methods or testing renal scan software, or can involve after-hours imaging of animals during the development of new radiopharmaceuticals. Clinical research, historically the measurement of the effects of some medical intervention on human subjects, is more broadly defined to include epidemiological studies, behavioral observations, or outcomes and health services research. All of these must first undergo peer review for funding, for publication or presentation at scientific meetings, and for administrative approvals.