Emergence of hybrid PET-MRI: first clinical experience

Qualifying in medicine in Switzerland, and gaining a biophysics degree and PhD in medical imaging at the University of California Los Angeles, Professor Osman Ratib MD PhD, soon earned an international reputation in the development of computer-aided diagnosis in cardiac imaging and in the development of Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS), and became director of the medical imaging section in a newly created medical informatics division in Geneva.
He later then became Professor and Vice Chairman of the Department of Radiology at UCLA, and coordinated the deployment of an enterprise-wide strategy and infrastructure for image management and communication and seven years later, back at the University Hospital of Geneva, was made responsible for new molecular and functional imaging techniques and particularly of hybrid PET-CT.
His clinical activities include cardiovascular MR and CT imaging procedures, combined PET-CT imaging and advanced cardiovascular imaging. Today, as Chairman of the Department of Radiology and Head of the Division of Nuclear Medicine at the same university, he is responsible for six clinical divisions including radiology, neuroradiology, radio-oncology, nuclear medicine and medical informatics as well as a cyclotron and pre-clinical imaging unit. He has pioneered several innovative projects including advanced cardiovascular PET-CT programme and the first whole-body PET-MRI unit in Europe.