ABSTRACT
Objective To investigate the application status of radiotherapy and nuclear medicine resources in Qingdao, China, and to provide a data foundation for the development of radiotherapy and nuclear medicine in this city. Methods A questionnaire survey was performed on all medical institutions with radiotherapy and nuclear medicine services across Qingdao. The cut off date for questionnaire data pooling was March 31, 2021. Results A total of 18 hospitals have radiotherapy services in Qingdao, including 12 (66.67%) tertiary hospitals and 6 (33.33%) secondary hospitals. There were 29 pieces of radiotherapy equipment in total, including 24 (82.76%) linear accelerators, 4(13.79%) brachytherapy units, and 1(3.45%) helical tomotherapy unit. Among all patients with radiotherapy in Qingdao, 79.68% were treated in tertiary hospitals. Nuclear medicine departments have been set up in five medical institutions in Qingdao, all in tertiary hospitals. There were five PET-CT scanners, seven SPECT scanners, and two cyclotrons in these nuclear medicine departments. Conclusion Qingdao had a higher radiotherapy equipping rate than the national average level, but with an uneven personnel distribution. Some secondary hospitals were short of medical physicists. The penetration rates of nuclear medicine equipment and personnel should be improved.