Considerations in the purchase of a nuclear medicine computer system

Selection of a nuclear medicine computer system is a process that should be approached with care and forethought. The general scheme should be to define your needs and constraints, determine what is available, investigate the leading candidates, make a site visit, and, finally, submit an order. Through a series of discussions between members of the Computer Council of the Society of Nuclear Medicine and representatives from the manufacturers of computer systems, a set of important considerations emerged, which are reported in this paper. This paper is not intended to be a step-by-step guideline to the purchase of a computer system. Rather, it is a set of concepts and considerations with which the prospective purchaser should be familiar before undertaking such a purchase.