| At the time of Therac-25, FDA was only budgeted to investigate 6 percent of device applications. Currently, the same mistakes made in the eighties with Therac-25 are being made in many radiation therapy devices. The two NY Times articles (Pulitzer Prize winning) in 2010 and 2011 describe some of the newer cases. What's shocking to me is that the incidents are always reported in isolation. People become briefly outraged, then the furor dies down until the next death. Many of the comments in this thread suggest that people can't or won't face the fact that this is a current, ongoing problem of great complexity. A couple of comments mentioned the coverage of Therac-25 in schools. Very little of what is taught in schools makes it into the programming of radiation therapy devices. History has shown that schooling is not a sufficient solution. Other comments claim (erroneously) that the FDA is attending to the problem. The FDA has been carefully defanged by the medical device lobby. The FDA has gotten smarter, but has nowhere near the funding to keep pace with its charge and never will. I wish I could say that I see some hope but I don't see it. |
Of course, sometimes hospitals aren't logical, air circulation between rooms comes to mind. And here, I'm sure everyone just trusts the machines because they paid a lot of money for them and it's always worked in the past ...