Feature -- by Mark Sproxton

Inside the quiet, bright, antiseptic-looking room, a solitary figure in a lab coat slowly pours a small amount of liquid from one container into another. While seemingly a simple task, the motions are done carefully and deliberately. And for good reason. The containers hold a radioactive chemical used, in this case, to help determine the cause of a patient's chest pain.

The nuclear medicine technologist preparing the solution is no Homer Simpson, either. Working with strict handling procedures and safety techniques is part of the job. "When you're dealing with open sources of radiation, you have to be aware of them, and respect them," said Terry Ell, a long-time technologist who now works as the clinical instructor for Alberta's only post-secondary nuclear medicine technologist program through the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT).

Like many who have worked in a career for some time, Ell's path to get there took some twists and turns. "In my case, I came out of high school and had no idea what I wanted," he said. After completing four years of university, Ell then decided to get into the medical field. He completed SAIT's nuclear medicine technology program and then began work in the field. Over the next several years, he spent time working, and continuing with his post-secondary studies to become a qualified instructor and recently completed his PhD. "That's not the way I would suggest others go about it," he said.

What attracted Ell to the program, and what continues to attract people to most areas of the medical field, is the opportunity to work with people. And working regular eight-hour shifts Monday to Friday, the nuclear medicine technologist has good hours as far as hospital work goes, although being on call is required. "We're one of the largest centres in Alberta, and a busy call schedule will be three to four evenings for a few hours," Ell said of those working at Foothills Hospital. "And if you were working in a clinic, you would have no call."

Sometimes lumped together with X-ray technologists, two differences exist between the specialties. First, nuclear medicine looks at the functions of the body, where X-ray looks at anatomy. Secondly, in nuclear medicine, the patient produces the radiation, while in X-ray, it's the X-ray itself. "Nuclear medicine is diagnostic imaging modality in which we administer radioactive drugs and then, as the term would suggest, take images for the purposes of understanding the presence and type of disease," Ell said.

A typical day would see a nuclear medicine technologist arrive in the morning and prepare the radioactive pharmaceuticals, do quality control checks, administer the pharmaceutical to patients, and wait a required amount of time, which is drug-dependant, before performing any imaging. At the end of the process, all information is computer processed and passed along to doctors who provide the diagnosis.

Much of the work is done looking for cancer, but many other kinds of tests, including those looking for blood clots to heart attacks to neurological disorders are also performed. "You need all the characteristics required to deal with sick people," Ell explained. "Sympathy, patience, persistence and initiative. You must also have the ability to work as a member of the health care team." Working in a hospital environment also means you're often exposed to germs and bugs, so staying healthy is always on your mind, he added.

For those considering this as a career -- pay begins around $18 an hour -- Ell suggests typing in "nuclear medicine" on an Internet browser and conducting research from there. "There are some good ones there that will give people a good idea about nuclear medicine," he said.