The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) this week touted the progress it has made in the past 12 months with Target Safety, a patient protection plan developed to improve the safety and quality of radiation therapy treatments and to reduce the chance of medical errors.
The U.S. radiation therapy community has been rocked by reports of errors in patient treatment since a series of articles appeared in the New York Times on the subject in June 2009. ASTRO of Fairfax, VA, established a six-point plan in January 2010 to address radiation therapy accuracy.
ASTRO said that since the program launched, it has taken the following steps:
- Proposed federal legislation to develop a national medical error reporting system and a patient safety database for radiation oncology
- Tested the compatibility of different radiation oncology equipment vendors in accordance with Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise-Radiation Oncology (IHE-RO) profiles
- Continued to strengthen radiation oncology practice accreditation measures
- Lobbied for passage of legislation requiring licensing standards for personnel performing radiation treatments
- Developed educational material for patients and healthcare providers
Related Reading
ASTRO restructures into 4 divisions, September 6, 2010
Patient safety symposium draws crowds at AAPM, July 22, 2010
Societies to host meeting on radiation safety, April 16, 2010
Rad therapy groups support FDA review, April 10, 2010
FDA hearings rise above medical radiation rhetoric, March 31, 2010
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