It is in the sense that there has always been the debate as to whether nuclear medicine will be around and whether we have to make the investment to ensure that there is a medical isotope supply for the Canadian population or whether the specialty will be replaced by something else. Data would tend to show that medical imaging with nuclear medicine techniques...functional imaging is here to stay and will actually become more and more important. A part of the CIHR grants is looking at positron emission tomography rubidium-81, as Dr. McEwan mentioned. Two others are associated with positron emission tomography as well.
So the importance that nuclear medicine brings to physiological functioning imaging surpasses a lot of other techniques. PET imaging, in our specialty, is the next evolutionary process in that ability, and so I think it is safe to say that we will continue to have a demand for medical isotopes. In Ontario we have 100 nuclear medicine departments and something around 200 gamma cameras. PET imaging is not going to replace all of that. So PET will have a role to play, and that's part of the balanced strategic plan that we look at in Ontario, as PET playing a role and routine medical isotopes playing a role. The important component is to upgrade our gamma camera equipment that's on the ground now so that we use fewer medical isotopes, reduce the exposure, and that could be done today. The technology exists.
That's what I was getting at, sir.