[en] In an assessment of single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), there are several viewpoints from which one can look at the instrument and its performance. One can measure SPECT performance against some standard that is set as the goal, or one can attempt to judge the capabilities of commercially available SPECT units and what they might be expected to be in the near future. Both of these points of view are useful, not only for what they reveal about the progress of SPECT, but for what they reveal about certain expectations for the capabilities of nuclear medicine as a medical specialty. Quite a range of concerns and possible SPECT instrument uses have been addressed recently. These are grouped in this paper as innovations in imaging equipment, computer applications, and radiopharmaceuticals