Radiation safety a priority at Johns Hopkins
Source: www.nccn.org Author: Megan Martin, Communications Manager Recent media coverage surrounding treatment errors that have occurred in radiation therapy has only intensified discussions about the need to improve safety for patients with cancer. Joseph Herman, MD, a radiation oncologist at The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins and a featured panelist at the upcoming NCCN 2010 Patient Safety Summit, recently spoke with NCCN about policies Hopkins has implemented to ensure the safety of their radiation therapy patients. Radiation safety, an issue that has always received great attention at Hopkins, came to the forefront a few years ago as Hopkins was looking to develop a new program for high dose rate intraoperative radiation therapy (IORT) – delivered through brachytherapy – and discovered that there were no clear standard guidelines or quality indicators for how to develop such a program. “Safety is of particular concern in this type of treatment because due to the high dose of radiation being emitted, clinicians cannot remain in the same room as the patient, a specific cause of anxiety for anesthesiologists,” said Dr. Herman. Using a patient simulator, the team walked through a variety of practice scenarios, identified areas for concern, and developed strategies to address potential safety issues. For example, Hopkins now uses cameras to monitor patient vital signs in the room and also has pre-measured medications available that can be delivered via a pole from another room – basically a “long-distance” method of treatment. Furthering their aim to identify points in the [...]