Nuclear medicine
Nuclear medicine became widespread and there was a need to develop a new specialty. In the United States, the American Board of Nuclear Medicine was formed in 1972. At that time, the specialty include all of the uses of radioisotopes in medicine – radioimmunoassay, diagnostic imaging, and therapy. As use of and experience with radioisotopes became more widespread in medicine, radioimmunoassay generally transferred from nuclear medicine to clinical pathology. Today, nuclear medicine is based on the use of the tracer principle applied to diagnostic imaging and therapy.