Synergistic Opportunities for Nuclear Physics in Medical Diagnostics and Therapeutics: The view from the joint DOE and NIH workshops

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have recently convened workshops to cultivate future interactions between the NIH and DOE scientific communities by bringing together leaders in their respective fields to discuss their work, instrumentation challenges, technology gaps and identify opportunities for future impactful collaboration. These workshops have aimed to position the expertise and instrumentation advances developed in the DOE laboratories and user communities to be applied to improve patient care through advances in medical diagnostics and therapy. The workshops covered the state of existing instrumentation and future challenges to meet the dynamic goals of particle physics research and improved patient care. Topics included particle beam generation, radiopharmaceutical production, superconducting particle accelerators, proton therapy, superconducting magnets, cryogenics, high-speed electronics, artificial intelligence, big data and nuclear medicine. The second workshop specifically emphasized technology advances and gaps in high-energy particle detection and nuclear medicine imaging. This talk highlights key insights and recommendations garnered from the joint DOE and NIH workshops and emphasizes the medical applications of nuclear physics where similar interaction between the Division of Nuclear Physics and the Topical Group on Medical Physics could be fruitful.