Dados do Trabalho

Título

Safety Culture in Brazil – Learning from international data recording and sharing systems among Radiation Oncology Services

Introdução

Ionizing radiation is an important tool for disease treatment but carries entrenched risks due to the irreversibility of its possible deleterious effects. The International Atomic Energy Agency publishes periodically reports concerning adverse events occurring around the world trying to avoid its recurrency and to detect vulnerabilities. The term Safety Culture has appeared after Chernobyl’s nuclear disaster and has come to be part of discussions regarding patient´s safety and care. In the past decade, Brazil has been going through an expansion of its radiation therapy services with the “Plano de Expansão da Radioterapia no SUS - Expansion plan of Radiation Oncology in Unified Health System”, an important program to reduce an existing deficit in the country but that can increase the chance of accident occurrence. Increasingly technological and sturdy machinery associated to a high number of human beings involved in the entire process add up to the occurrence of errors potentially harmful to the patient.

Objetivo

The aim of this study is to perform a survey about the Brazilian and international situation upon Safety Culture, as well as a search for ongoing projects able to contribute for the standardization of a record and sharing data system about near-misses, incidents, and adverse events in Brazilian Radiation Oncology Services.

Método

Safety Culture is increasingly present in congresses and seminars of Brazilian societies of Radiation Oncology, Medical Physics and Dosimetry. Data bases like PubMed, Google Scholar and Science Direct were consulted.

Resultados

The safe use of ionizing radiation in health care is a permanent concern and several groups globally have been developing systems for data recording and sharing as part of an effort to improve Safety Culture in Radiation Oncology. In Brazil, studies to improve services and prevent accidents depend on access to official data on relevant events reported and communicated by the National Nuclear Energy Commission (CNEN).

Conclusão

National laws and regulations have recently started to incorporate the Safety Culture as a key point for improving services. European and North Americans cooperation initiatives have been developing unconstrained platforms for data and programs sharing such as PRISMA-RT and RO-ILS that can be taken as examples for the Brazilian Radiation Oncology.

Palavras-chave

Safety Culture, Radiation Oncology, Safety