[kohanz]

The Therac-25 case study is a tragic one, but fortunately it is not forgotten.

I work on medical devices (and have worked on radiotherapy devices previously) and the standards for quality systems and regulatory hurdles (which I occasionally see bemoaned here on HN) are there with good reason. In fact, Therac-25 is often cited when training new hires on quality (as required with any ISO-13485 compliant QMS).

[lostlogin]

Diagnostic imaging guy here - we point our recruits to this, balding patients when doing diagnostic tests shouldn't happen. http://www.ajnr.org/content/31/1/2.full

[noir_lord]

Definitely not forgotten, I wrote an essay on software safety when I was at college (not Uni, UK meaning) and the Therac 25 was a big chunk of it.

The research I did has always stuck with me because of the suffering the patients where exposed to combined with a company attitude of "admit only what we are forced to so we don't hurt sales".

Nothing I write is safety critical (though it was a field I was fascinated with when I was younger) though so I can sleep at night.

[throwwit]

I hope there are sensor mechanisms that confirm and/or failsafe the exposures nowadays.