[ RadSafe ] Errors in Radiation Therapy

[Siobhán Ní Chuinneagáin]

Hi Radsafers,

I was delighted to see a strand on errors causing undesired exposures to patients.  I am involved in research in this area, and am part of a group who administer ROSIS - Radiation Oncology Safety Information System.  This is an international, web-based, voluntary incident reporting system for radiotherapy departments.  It is available at www.rosis.info.  Departments submit details of incidents and near misses that have occurred, and ROSIS makes these reports available in an anonymous format for everyone to see them and learn from them.  
(Analysis is of course also conducted on the reports.)  
If you are interested in the types of incidents that happen in radiotherapy, I would recommend that you visit the site and read some of these reports for yourselves (on the "ROSIS Data" page).  There are over 700 reports online to date.  Some relate minor incidents, some near-misses, and fortunately only a small few are about serious incidents that will have a demonstrable adverse outcome for the patient.  Information is gathered on who discovered the incidents, how and when it was discovered, how it affected the patient, what happened etc etc.

The has been online for nearly 1 year and will be restructed and redesigned in the coming months.  In the meantime ROSIS would appreciate any comments you might have.

Joanne Cunningham
ROSIS 
Radiation Oncology Safety Information System
www.rosis.info