GATEWAY TO RECEIVE DONATED MEDICAL EQUIPMENT TO SUPPORT STUDENT LEARNING
Contact: Kirsten Schaefer, Media Relations
602-286-8227
kirsten.schaefer@gwmail.maricopa.edu
PHOENIX, Arizona (March 7, 2007) – GateWay Community College today announced El Dorado Hospital in Tucson has donated their state-of-the-art GE Healthcare Millennium Gamma Camera to the Nuclear Medical Technology program. There are only three cameras of its kind in the state of Arizona.
El Dorado Hospital’s gift comes in part from their recent merging with The Tucson Medical Center. The donated camera on campus will give students the advantage of hands-on experience with identical equipment they will be using in their profession. If GateWay had to purchase a similar camera new, the replacement cost would be approximately $1 million, a prohibitive expense for the college.
Additionally, the equipment will be dismantled, transported and reassembled at the college by GE Healthcare who has offered this service free of charge.
Nuclear Medical Technology student Rob Wilson agrees that having access to this equipment on campus is an asset to his overall education. “We learn the technical aspects of how to set up the camera and how to manipulate the controls before entering into a busy clinical setting,” Wilson said. Not having a working camera is “like trying to learn to drive without a car,” he said.
“Everyone is being so cooperative in educating students in the field,” said Jeanne Dial, the Nuclear Medical Technology program director at GateWay Community College, “And everyone is very excited about El Dorado Hospital’s generous donation to the program.”
The Millennium Gamma Camera allows the students to see how organs function in the body. Students inject radioactive material into the patient (mannequins are used for learning in the lab), and the material in the patient emits a gamma ray that is detected by the camera. The camera the college currently owns has been broken for six months and it cannot be repaired because of its age.
The Nuclear Medical Technology program at GateWay Community College educates students with hands-on lab work as well as classroom instruction. Students administer radio-pharmaceuticals to patients to assess their physiological response. They use sophisticated detection devices that obtain qualitative and quantitative data that assist physicians as they diagnose and treat diseases.
About GateWay Community College
As one of the Maricopa Community Colleges, GateWay Community College is a fully accredited public institution of higher education located in Phoenix, Ariz. Offering over 100 Certificate and Associate Degree programs in the areas of Business and Information Technology, Health Sciences, Industrial Technology, Nursing and University Transfer, GateWay has emerged as a leading institution to meet the needs of business and industry. Visit www.gatewaycc.edu or call 602-286-8600 for more information.