National Institutes for Quantum and Radiological Science and Technology(QST) has received the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare Award at the 15th Merit Award Winners for Industry-Academia-Government Collaboration for the research and development of a PET device dedicated for breast cancer, called Elmammo.
This award, which is sponsered by the Cabinet Office of Japan, started in 2003 to recognize noteworthy successes that contributed significantly to industry, academia and government collaboration.
Funded by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), QST has been collaborating with Shimadzu Corporation and Kyoto University Hospital on this project.
Elmammo, which was released in 2014 by Shimadzu Corporation, is a device, which can examine breasts by placing them in the O-shaped detector, without compressing the breast and causing patient discomfort.
It offers about twice the resolution and about ten times the sensitivity as full body PET/CT devices.
The awards were presented to Yamaya Taiga (The Radiological Science Research Development Directorate, QST),Yuji Nakamoto (Kyoto University Hospital), and Keiji Kitamura (Shimadzu Corporation), at an awards ceremony in Tokyo on 1 September.
