Quality and Safety With Technological Advancements in Radiotherapy: An Overview and Journey Narrative From a Low- and Middle-Income Country Institution

Abstract

PURPOSE To present an overview of quality and safety in radiotherapy from the context of low- and middle-income countries on the basis of a recently conducted annual meeting of our institution and our experience of implementing an error management system at our center. METHODS The minutes of recently concluded annual Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM-2021) meeting on the basis of technology in radiation oncology were reviewed. The session on quality and safety, which had international experts as speakers, was reviewed. Along with this, we reviewed the literature for preventive and reactive measures proposed to manage errors including error reporting and learning systems (ILSs). Concise summary for the same was prepared for this article. RESULTS We also reviewed the journey of development of our institutional ILS and present here a summary of achievements, challenges, and future vision. CONCLUSION Preventive and reactive measures must be followed to achieve high-quality and safe radiotherapy. Despite resource constraints, a successful ILS program can be developed in a low- and middle-income country center by first understanding the patterns of error and developing one that suits the working ecosystem.