Use of radioisotopes in medicine. The role of the national atomic energy comission in its development (1950-1982)

Abstract

During its first three decades of life, the National Atomic Energy Comission unrolled an autonomous policy of development that lead to the expansion and embedment of the Argentinian nuclear sector in different fields. Although in the medical field, the use of radioisotopes for research and clinical purposes held, at the emergence of the nuclear sector, with a significant number of studies, with the institutionalization of nuclear activities, with the creation of the National Atomic Energy Comission in 1950, the development of nuclear applications for medical purposes gained great impulse. This was possible, due to the assignment of resources in three strategic lines: investigation and professional training, provision of radioisotopes and administration and operation of clinical centers of nuclear medicine. In this article, then, we will see how the quest for autonomous technology development had its side effects in the medical area, leading to important scientific discoveries, the self-supply of radioisotopes and the operation of two clinic centers of nuclear medicine that provided care to patients.