The Egyptian Society of Nuclear Medicine Moving to the Future – Yes We Can. Hussein M. Abdel-Dayem, M.D., FACNM, FACNP Director, Nuclear Medicine St. Vincent’s Medical Centers of New York Professor of Radiology, New York Medical College

I am pleased and honored to write this editorial for the second edition of the Journal of the Egyptian Society of Nuclear Medicine (JESNM), which I admire very much. As I watch the growth of the Egyptian Society of Nuclear Medicine (ESNM) I decided to share in this narrative my thoughts with the editorial board, the leaders of this specialty in Egypt and all of the members. My
thoughts are no more than wishes for what I hope will be the future of the Society. We cannot plan for the future without acknowledging the past and realizing the current strengths and weaknesses of the nuclear medicine discipline in Egypt. I have been part of this specialty for almost fifty
years. In the late 1950s and early 1960s the use of radionuclides in medicine was just starting to spread worldwide. At this early time Egypt was one of the few countries in the world that introduced this technology in Cairo University. This was strengthened by the efforts of the Egyptian Atomic Energy Agency and later on by the Regional Center for Isotopes training for the Arab countries supported by the International Atomic Energy Agency. The natural growth of the specialty under the academic leadership from the major universities at that time in Cairo and Alexandria, followed at a later date by other universities, resulted in the establishment of academic programs that
were taught under other specialties. However, within a short time it was realized that the quality of this training was not good enough to parallel the growth of the specialty and to meet the need for taking care of clinical, academic and research activities. Soon residency training programs with required Master Degrees followed by Doctorate Degrees was established at Cairo University, with other medical schools following their lead. A new generation of specialists, consultants and academic staff grew at such a pace that it met the local and regional needs in the government and private sectors in Egypt and the Middle East region. The support from different national and international agencies exposed the staff and the graduates to the developments in the industrial nations. As a result Egypt became the center for international training courses for the Middle East and African countries.
These developments in the training of the academic and clinical staff was accompanied by training programs in medical physics at the various universities and nuclear medicine technologist programs that met the
market and academic needs. A special degree for bio-engineering was established shortly after in Cairo University. It has been impressive to initiate and stabilize Master and Ph.D. degrees in medical physics and bio-engineering in Egypt. As a result the team for running and maintaining the new technology was met.