2010 AAPM Annual Meeting
Michael G. Herman, PhD, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, 55905
For more information about the American Association of Physicists in Medicine, visit http://www.aapm.org/
Patient safety has always been a critical concern to AAPM members, but ha srecently
taken on a new public awareness. The AAPM will be hosting a special symposium to
discuss issues related to patient safety. The goals of the symposium will be to present the
background to the recent increase in awareness and what the AAPM and international
organizations are doing to improve patient safety.
The third speaker will be Michael Herman. Dr. Herman is the current president of the AAPM and will describe AAPM efforts to improve patient safety in the medical use of radiation. These include two recent meetings; CT technique, calibration and monitoring and safety in radiation therapy. He will describe AAPM and cooperative multi-society and agency efforts under way that focus on 4 primary objectives: 1) national recognition of properly qualified individuals who participate in procedures in medical imaging and radiation therapy. This includes national recognition and enforcement of the AAPM definition of the qualified medical physicist. The Consistency, Accuracy, Responsibility and Excellence in Medical Imaging andRadiation Therapy (“CARE”) Act represents an opportunity to achieve this goal; 2) establishing nationally consistent practice accreditation for all medical radiation uses, that recognize qualified individuals, in appropriate staffing levels, who follow approved community consensus standards and practice guidelines. Dr. Herman will also describe independent auditing services that could be provided by centers for radiologic physics(CRPs), which existed in the 1970s and early 1980s to provide audit and quality review for radiation therapy practices. The CRP model could substantially enhance the accreditation process with objective assessment of practice technical competence. AAPM has formed a committee to investigate the reincarnation of the CRP model; 3)the development of a consistent mechanism for reporting potential and actual adverse events in the medical use of radiation. Such a system would provide essential data on medical errors to perform trend analysis, assessment, inform the community and to make improvements; 4) enhancement of the FDA pre market approval and post market monitoring systems. The current systems have substantial limitations in terms of effectively reviewing all safety and efficacy aspects of devices that use medical radiation. AAPM has continued to dialogue with FDA and others to provide assistance. It is possible that technical assessments performed by experts that are independent of manufacturer and regulatory agencies could provide objective, quantitative and relevant guidance to the clearance and monitoring processes. The AAPM technology assessment institute, possibly in cooperation with other similar organizations is preparing to provide such evaluations.
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