Radiation Safety–California Governor Schwarzenegger Signs Law to Help Enforce Safety and Require Any Overdoses To Be Reported to Patients, Physicians and the Department of Public Health

This is good as if you read the news there has not been a way to track these issues and earlier this year we had some pretty tragic incidences relating to software issues with the use of medical radiation treatments.  The software issues are critical and I will mention once more in an area like this you do NOT rush the programmers for the hope of getting a product to market sooner. 

“The bill requires that radiation dose be recorded on the scanned image and in a patient's health records, and that radiation overdoses be reported to patients, treating physicians, and the state Department of Public Health (DPH). It requires the same level of monitoring for therapeutic radiation used to treat cancer.”

Radiation Over Exposure Investigation Efforts Continue–Patients With Strokes Over Exposed

This is not immediate and does not go into effect until 2013, and the article states there could be modifications to the law as if the FDA in their studies and research find additional safety precautions, they could be added.  I think if our leaders had a better understanding of consumer digital literacy they would have not been “surprised” at the findings as all software has issues at times, but this area is critical and you can’t be specific enough. 

Congress Surprised With Radiation Oversights and Treatments – Software and Algorithms Are the Key to Safety Here

You know everybody thinks the internet and software is sometimes better than it is but when you are on the web, you have servers failing all the time and you just don’t notice it as a back up flips right into place immediately as this part of data is done so well with back up, it is invisible to the average consumer, but it’s happening all the time on the web, there’s just some real good fixes out there that make it look and act in such a consistent manner.  Speaking of the FDA this video deserves a mention as they put time and effort out there to help educate us on how they approve devices and some of their processes.  BD 

FDA's MDEpiNet - Improving Medical Device Safety and Effectiveness From FDA Director of Epidemiology (Video)

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California on Wednesday signed a medical radiation protection bill into law, paving the way for implementation of the first state law in the U.S. aimed at protecting patients from excessive radiation exposure received during CT scans and radiation therapy procedures.

SB 1237, which the governor signed without comment along with scores of other bills, will impose strict new procedures and reporting requirements to protect patients from medical radiation overdoses when it becomes effective July 1, 2012. The bill also provides an accreditation mandate for CT scanners that will take effect January 1, 2013, six months after the other provisions.

"Delayed implementation is going to allow the radiology community, the legislators, the regulatory agents, and the [U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)] to continue to explore the issues and look for the best solutions," said Achermann. CRS is continuing to work with legislators to ensure that the radiology community fully understands the bill and its requirements, and that anything that's found to be unworkable can be amended, he said.

A later review found that other California facilities, including Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center in Los Angeles; Mad River Community Hospital in Arcata; Glendale Adventist Medical Center in Glendale; Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank; and Bakersfield Memorial Hospital in Bakersfield, among others, had also used excessive radiation doses, implicating the medical staff as well as scanner manufacturers in the errors.

http://www.auntminnie.com/index.asp?Sec=sup&Sub=cto&Pag=dis&ItemId=92208&wf=3975

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