Presented by Daniel Bailey, PhD, DABR
Medical Physicist
Northside Hospital Cancer Institute

From the AAMD Virtual 45th Annual Meeting
July 6 -10, 2020

NOTE: If you earned CE Credits for this session during the AAMD Virtual 45^thAnnual Meeting, you will not be eligible to earn CE Credits for it again.

Developing a culture of safety in radiation oncology includes constant assessment and reassessment of the processes and workflows of many complicated tasks throughout diverse professional responsibilities. Analysis techniques such as incident learning, root cause analysis, fault tree diagramming, and failure mode and effect analysis provide valuable information to prospectively anticipate clinical tasks with the highest potential risk. But what is the next step toward actually improving safety based on this collection of information and multi-disciplinary analyses? Implementation of safety barriers is the process in which definitive steps are formed into policy to effectively mitigate the potential risk of an accident before it has the chance to occur.

In this presentation, we will examine current professional guidelines for the creation of simple yet powerful safety barriers to improve the quality and safety of processes across the spectrum of clinical disciplines. Further, we will review some of the literature and case studies demonstrating the usefulness and proven results of some of these safety barriers when established as an integral part of clinical routine. Throughout this presentation, we will focus on practical aspects of implementing safety barriers that each participant can take home and put to immediate use to further develop the quality of the busy professional workload.

Learner Outcomes:
1. Review the basic concepts of incident learning and failure mode and effect analysis toward improving the quality and safety of radiation oncology clinical tasks
2. Gain a working understanding of establishing safety barriers in order to mitigate the tasks with the highest risk within any individual's daily workflow
3.Demonstrate the proven usefulness and effectiveness of making smart safety barriers an integral part of daily professional routine

Educational Level: Entry Level

Presenter:
Daniel Bailey, PhD, DABR completed his Master’s and Doctorate degrees in the Physics Department of SUNY Buffalo, while working as a clinical and research associate in the Medical Physics program at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute from 2008 to 2011.  Dan also completed his medical physics residency at Roswell Park from 2011 to 2013.  He is currently one of ten medical physicists at the Northside Hospital Cancer Institute, centered in Atlanta GA, and is actively involved in the AAPM, AAMD, and ABR professional organizations.  His research and clinical-improvement activities include SRS, SBRT, quality assurance and dosimetry techniques, total body irradiation, and improving the quality and safety of the modern radiotherapy workflow.  Outside of work hours, Dan spends his time playing, singing, reading and generally being silly with his daughters, Fiona (9), Willow (7), Sylvie (4), their goldendoodle, Peekaboo, and enjoying the whole adventure with his wife, Leah.