‘Amazing tech’ helping sick kids celebrates 500th scan

Nick Gibbs | July 14, 2023

Queensland’s Children’s Hospital is celebrating a major milestone for a nation-leading piece of technology used to diagnose and treat serious diseases.

The Brisbane facility is the only paediatric hospital in Australia to offer the digital PET-CT service, commonly used to diagnose and treat kids with cancer, epilepsy and other diseases.

Acting Premier Steven Miles and Health Minister Shannon Fentiman helped mark the service’s 500th scan since it began operating in November 2021.

“This has improved the experience for patients and their families, the dedicated clinicians who care for them, and put ambulances back on the road to save lives,” Mr Miles said.

About 25 patients a month use the service, which delivers higher quality, more accurate imaging, with faster scan times and less exposure to radiation.

Delivering the service on site has reduced total procedure time from about 10 hours to three and a half hours for some patients.

Faster scan times also mean a shorter procedure, reducing the need for anaesthetic.

“As the only Australian paediatric hospital with this amazing technology, children and young people across Queensland are benefiting from the best quality of care,” Ms Fentiman said.

Positron Emission Tomography (PET) enables the non-invasive imaging of metabolic functions in the body.

It enables the evaluation of organ and tissue function, and by identifying changes at the cellular level, may detect the early onset of disease before other processes.