A decision support system to deal with the medical isotopes crisis

The complexity of emerging issues in science, technology, and medicine calls for new strategies to deal with risk and uncertainty. This paper explores the production of medical isotopes in Canada as an illustration of complex issues requiring decision support. It proposes a four-feature strategy for policy makers. Tightly but inversely connected, risks generated by either the production or non-production of medical isotopes are multidimensional and located on both the demand (healthy citizens and their well-being) and supply (safety of production) sides. The decision making also involves multidisciplinary considerations. Another feature of the process is the geographic scale. Production goes beyond domestic needs as global society depends on medical isotopes and must rely on very few producers. Finally, time scale adds to the complexity of the strategy, as developing technology alternatives on both the supply and demand sides requires a long-term perspective.