Ter-Pogossian, Michael E. Phelps, Edward J. Hoffman and others at Washington University School of Medicine. Work by Gordon Brownell, Charles Burnham and their associates at the Massachusetts General Hospital beginning in the 1950s contributed significantly to the development of PET technology and included the first demonstration of annihilation radiation for medical imaging. Their innovations, including the use of light pipes and volumetric analysis, have been important in the deployment of PET imaging. In 1961, James Robertson and his associates at Brookhaven National Laboratory built the first single-plane PET scan, nicknamed the "head-shrinker." One of the factors most responsible for the acceptance of positron imaging was the development of radiopharmaceuticals. In particular, the development of labeled 2-fluorodeoxy-D-glucose (2FDG) by the Brookhaven group under the direction of Al Wolf and Joanna Fowler was a major factor in expanding the scope of PET imaging. The compound was first administered to two normal human volunteers by Abass Alavi in August 1976 at the University of Pennsylvania. Brain images obtained with an ordinary (non-PET) nuclear scanner demonstrated the concentration of FDG in that organ. Later, the substance was used in dedicated positron tomographic scanners, to yield the modern procedure. The logical extension of positron instrumentation was a design using two 2-dimensional arrays. PC-I was the first instrument using this concept and was designed in 1968, completed in 1969 and reported in 1972. The first applications of PC-I in tomographic mode as distinguished from the computed tomographic mode were reported in 1970. It soon became clear to many of those involved in PET development that a circular or cylindrical array of detectors was the logical next step in PET instrumentation. Although many investigators took this approach, James Robertson and Zang-Hee Cho were the first to propose a ring system that has become the prototype of the current shape of PET. The PET-CT scanner, attributed to David Townsend and Ronald Nutt, was named by Time as the medical invention of the year in 2000. Cost As of August 2008, Cancer Care Ontario reports that the current average incremental cost to perform a PET scan in the province is Can$1,000–1,200 per scan. This includes the cost of the radiopharmaceutical and a stipend for the physician reading the scan. In the United States, a PET scan is estimated to be ~$5,000, and most insurance companies don't pay for routine PET scans after cancer treatment due to the fact that