Medical Physics Seminar – Monday, September 23, 2019
What the Chernobyl nuclear disaster can teach us about patient safety in radiotherapy
Zac Labby and Dustin Jacqmin (Hosted by Larry DeWerd)
Assistant Professors (CHS),
Department of Human Oncology
The Chernobyl nuclear disaster has re-entered the cultural conscientiousness recently thanks to a best-selling book called Midnight in Chernobyl and an HBO series on the disaster. The Chernobyl disaster has been studied in great detail using systems analysis tools like root cause analysis. These systems analysis tools are increasingly being used in radiotherapy to improve quality and safety. In this seminar presentation, we will discuss parallels between the meltdown at Chernobyl and radiotherapy errors that have been previously reported in the media. We will also discuss lessons from Chernobyl that apply directly to radiotherapy.