Who exactly are radiopharmacists, and how does their work differ from regular pharmaceutical work? Assoc. Prof. Dr. Petra Kolenc, MPharm, explains that radiopharmacists work with radioactive drugs or radiopharmaceuticals. ‘The radioactive component is the central thread and key feature of the drugs we work with, and it affects all other differences compared to conventional drugs. With radiopharmaceuticals, we have a non-radioactive component to which we attach the radioactive component. We do this in our radiopharmaceutical pharmacy, and it is characteristic that we prepare radiopharmaceuticals only a few minutes or hours before administering them to the patient. We prepare the drugs just before use because most of the radioactive substances we work with have a very short half-life.’
You can read more about the work of radiopharmacists, radiopharmaceuticals, and required safety measures at the following link:
(Assoc. Prof. Dr. Petra Kolenc, MPharm. Photo: Jože Suhadolnik/Delo)