Program Information
Enhancing Our Safety Culture by Understanding Recent Mishaps (Part 2): Brachytherapy
B Libby*, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA
TU-G-218-2 Tuesday 4:30:00 PM - 6:00:00 PM Room: 218The AAPM and other associated professional societies and governmental bodies (ACR, ASTRO, ABS, NCRP, IAEA, ICRP, and NRC) are fully committed to providing the highest quality brachytherapy treatments in an effective and safe manner. Although the history of our profession can demonstrate extraordinary effectiveness in our conscientious and comprehensive approach to the radiation treatment of cancer, there have been accidents and misadministrations in brachytherapy, and we must be committed to understanding and learning from the open communication of reported medical events, whether through the media or in reports issued by national and international bodies. In this presentation several medical events in brachytherapy that have occurred and been reported will be presented and coupled with corrective actions that should have been in place. The established literature on safety and quality assurance for brachytherapy is also presented.
Learning Objectives:
1. To review and understand the root causes of brachytherapy medical events that have been reported in the media and to governmental and associated bodies.
2. To review and understand corrective actions that should be in place in order to safely administer brachytherapy treatments.
3. To review and understand the various established recommendations for the safe delivery of brachytherapy from the AAPM and associated bodies in order to foster a culture of safety surrounding brachytherapy treatments.
4. To discuss communication that needs to take place among users, treatment planning system makers, and seed vendors in order to foster the use of identical terminology so that a possible source of treatment error can be eliminated.
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