Communicating nuclear medicine to a wider audience
Highlights
• Effective Science Communication – The importance of choosing the right tone and vocabulary to explain complex medical concepts, making nuclear medicine more accessible to professionals and the public.
• Educating Through Digital Media – How a highly successful YouTube channel uses 3D models, engaging visuals, and real surgical footage to simplify medical topics and attract a wide audience.
• Growing Interest in Nuclear Medicine – Addressing common misconceptions, leveraging radiology to introduce nuclear medicine, and inspiring students to explore careers in this lesser-known field.
• Future of Alzheimer’s Diagnosis – Groundbreaking research on early detection using PET scans and the challenges of securing funding to advance new imaging techniques and treatments.
About the author
Paulien Moyaert
MD, PhD candidate at Ghent University, Belgium, and Western University, London, Ontario, Canada. Nuclear Medicine Resident at the Free University of Brussels
Introduction
Effective science communication is crucial in making complex topics accessible to diverse audiences. In this interview, we speak with Dr. Paulien Moyaert, a physician-scientist who has successfully leveraged digital media to demystify nuclear medicine. As the creator of a highly successful YouTube channel, she produces concise, engaging videos on a variety of medical topics, using 3D models, dynamic PowerPoint slides, and even real surgical footage.
With a background in both medicine and research, she discusses the challenges of interdisciplinary collaboration, the strategies she employs to engage a broad audience, and the future of nuclear medicine.
From explaining intricate medical concepts to combating misconceptions, she shares her approach and experience in making scientific topics clearer and more engaging for professionals and the public alike.
How do you determine the right tone and vocabulary for your content? Are there specific words or technical terms you consciously avoid ensuring clarity? If so, which ones and why?
I started this YouTube channel because I personally experienced the challenges of working with people from different professional backgrounds. After graduating from medical school, I moved to Canada to begin a PhD in nuclear medicine. There, I frequently collaborated with physicists and engineers who often had to explain complex concepts to me. The difficulty wasn’t so much the language barrier but rather the realization that, even when I asked them to repeat or simplify their explanations, they often couldn’t break things down in a clearer or more accessible way.
So, when I write the scripts for my videos, I simply imagine I’m explaining a topic to a layperson who has a genuine interest in it. I don’t overthink the tone or vocabulary, perhaps because, as the daughter of a teacher, I have an intuitive sense of which words resonate and which don’t. Also, there’s nothing wrong with using complex terms; you just need to explain them in simple, clear language in the sentence that follows.
What are the most common questions or misconceptions patients have when they first learn about nuclear medicine?
I think the most common question I get is: “What exactly is nuclear medicine?” When I tell people I’m a nuclear medicine physician, I often see the confusion in their eyes. They’ve heard of Fukushima, they know there are nuclear power plants in Belgium, and maybe they’re familiar with PET scans, especially if they know someone with cancer, but their understanding rarely goes beyond that. They’re usually surprised to learn that I see patients with orthopedic, urologic, gynecologic, oncologic, and even endocrinologic conditions. Another misconception is that nuclear medicine is dangerous.
To counter this kind of fear, I often use a familiar comparison: I explain that people are also exposed to natural sources of radiation in everyday life, especially during air travel. For example, passengers on a long-distance flight, such as from Europe to North America, are exposed to a small but measurable dose of cosmic radiation due to the altitude.
Now imagine the cumulative exposure for flight crews who are in the air several times a week. People working in aviation, pilots, flight attendants, are exposed to about 4 millisieverts of radiation per year just from flying. That’s roughly equivalent to the dose from a single bone scan.
Have you identified specific content formats or styles that are particularly effective in educating patients about nuclear medicine?
In today’s world, where we’re constantly overwhelmed by online content, I try to stand out in three key ways:
1. Quality over quantity. I place a strong emphasis on ensuring the information I share is accurate, trustworthy, and of the highest quality. That’s why I’m very hands-on with the entire process—from writing the scripts to editing and publishing the videos. The only part I outsource is the voiceover, mainly because I’m not a fan of my own European accent. I’m not a large company focused on profit. My main goal is to make a meaningful impact, and I believe my subscribers recognize and appreciate that.
2. Short and engaging videos. I skip lengthy intros and get straight to the point. I aim to make my content visually dynamic by including animations or introducing a new visual or keyword every 8–10 seconds. This helps keep viewers engaged throughout the video.
3. Leveraging radiology to introduce nuclear medicine. Radiology, the “brother” of nuclear medicine, is much more widely known. That’s why I occasionally create videos on radiology topics and use them to guide viewers toward nuclear medicine content. According to my analytics, around 40% of viewers who watch my nuclear medicine videos first discovered my channel through a radiology video.
How do you choose the topics for your videos? What factors influence your decisions?
When I first started my YouTube channel, I focused on topics I was studying or learning about at the time, often very niche topics. But if you want your channel to grow, you eventually have to think about what your (potential) audience is looking for. Personally, I still find nuclear medicine the most fascinating, but the reality is that not many people are actively searching for nuclear medicine videos to watch in their free time. So, if I wanted the project to at least break even, I knew I needed to shift my focus a little.
Around that time, I became pregnant, and like many moms-to-be, I became curious about what was happening inside my body—the physiology behind it all. I started creating 3D videos around those topics, and that’s when my channel really took off. I grew from 1,000 to 100,000 subscribers in less than a year.
Today, I continue to create both nuclear medicine videos and 3D content covering a wide range of medical topics. While the 3D videos generate the majority of views and bring in most of the new subscribers, it’s the nuclear medicine content that attracts a more engaged and dedicated audience. Viewers who find my 3D videos often watch just one, but those who discover the nuclear medicine content tend to dive deeper—watching one video after another. Many even reach out to me on LinkedIn to express their gratitude, which makes those videos especially rewarding to create.
The direction of the channel isn’t always perfectly mapped out, but I try to follow what genuinely interests me and what seems to resonate with my audience.
There is a shortage of trained professionals in nuclear medicine. How would you encourage students to pursue a career in this field?
The main problem is that nuclear medicine is largely unknown. During my six years of medical school, I had only two hours, yes, just two(!), dedicated to nuclear medicine. I still remember staring at a slide filled with complex PET scan physics and thinking, “Why on earth would anyone want to do that?”
In the final two years of med school, we began clinical rotations. I had one week of radiology, and at the hospital where I was placed, they suggested I spend a day in the nuclear medicine department. That day ended up completely changing my life.
I’ve always been a theoretical thinker with a broad range of interests, and I was amazed to discover a specialty that brought together radiology, gynecology, urology, orthopedics, cardiology, oncology, and endocrinology, along with both diagnostics and treatment. On top of that, it struck me as the perfect fit for someone like me: a young woman who always dreamed of having children and wanted a career that could offer both intellectual challenge and work-life balance.
So, to answer your question: I hope that through my YouTube channel, I can make nuclear medicine more visual and accessible. On a smaller scale, I supervise younger medical students who are writing their master’s theses, and I always try to show them the beauty and potential of nuclear medicine. It’s hard to convince someone with words alone, but by working alongside them and sharing my work, many have told me that their perception of nuclear medicine changed drastically—and in a very positive way.
Can you tell us about your postdoctoral research? Can you explain it both in highly technical terms and in a way that a general audience can understand?
I prefer to explain it in layman’s terms. The more experienced you become, the deeper you dive into your specific area of study—and the fewer people there are who truly understand the exact work you’re doing. That’s why I believe it’s more valuable to explain things in a clear, accessible way that anyone can follow.
My research focuses on diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease up to ten years before symptoms appear, by examining the brain using PET scans. Think about how we treat high blood pressure or high cholesterol today: we do everything we can to prevent heart attacks and strokes before they happen. So why don’t we treat Alzheimer’s with the same urgency?
Research shows that the biological processes leading to Alzheimer’s begin at least a decade before the first symptoms show. If we can diagnose it at that stage, we open a window of opportunity to intervene, potentially slowing the disease and preserving brain function. What’s lost is lost; I don’t believe we’ll ever be able to restore dead brain cells. But we can work to prevent them from dying in the first place.
As part of this mission, I plan to work with UC Berkeley and UCSF in San Francisco to deepen my understanding of Amyloid and Tau PET scans, as well as Leqembi—the first drug shown to actually slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease. Both the imaging techniques and the drug are already being used routinely in the United States, but they are not yet widely implemented in Belgium. With the recent approval of Leqembi in Europe, I’m hopeful that this will soon change.
Edited by David Crunelle
Other publications
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