The Nuclear Photographer

Left: Burnaby Hospital nuclear medicine technologist, Karen Yip, with her camera of choice.

Karen Yip is a Nuclear Medicine Technologist. When she talks to her friends and family about her work, it’s not an uncommon sight for her to be met with quizzical responses. Having joined Burnaby Hospital’s Nuclear Medicine team almost three years ago, Karen explains to me that this branch of medicine involves using radioactive materials or tracers to scan and take images of patients. Many of the patients Karen sees in a typical day can involve looking at hearts, bones, lungs, kidneys, stomachs, brains and other organs in the body.

When asked what she loves most about her job, she responds, “Working with patients. You get different patients everyday. Most are really friendly and you get to know them better. I like talking to patients and making them feel more comfortable.”

The diagnostic art of nuclear medicine involves using a large camera that can track where the radioactive tracers have travelled through the organ of interest to determine how it’s functioning. And it’s examinations such as these that help catch conditions like blockages in the heart, coronary artery disease, muscle damage, bone fractures, and cancer that has spread to the bone.

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