Program Information

Quality and Safety in Modern Brachytherapy

J Reiff

D Scanderbeg

S Richardson

J Reiff¹*, D Scanderbeg²*, S Richardson³*, (1) Drexel Univ. College of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, (2) UCSD Medical Center, LA JOLLA, CA, (3) Washington University, St. Louis,, MO

TU-B-213AB-1 Tuesday 9:00:00 AM - 9:55:00 AM Room: 213AB

A solid quality management program is the foundation upon which safe brachytherapy treatments are built. Brachytherapy technology continues to evolve for low dose rate and high dose rate implants along with 3D guidance and real time imaging. Because techniques, equipment, and software are constantly changing, we must change and adapt our quality management programs to be more systematic and quantitative in identifying and mitigating potential sources of error.

This symposium will open with a review of common errors in HDR brachytherapy and their relation to current NRC regulations. Next, this session will cover the concept of failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) and associated tools and their use in modern brachytherapy. Further, these safety management tools will be described as implemented by two separate institutions with active brachytherapy programs and with different workflow patterns, staffing, etc. We summarize the session by describing common pitfalls, and sources of error, and how to mitigate these potential errors. Although many of the concepts addressed here are applicable to both LDR and HDR brachytherapy, specific examples will be used from HDR brachytherapy.

Learning objectives
At the conclusion of the course, the audience should:
1. Be familiar with current NRC regulations and relationship to common errors
2. Understand failure mode and effect analysis and its application to brachytherapy programs
3. Understand common failure modes and ways to mitigate them


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