Radiation Therapy

1. What concepts in the chapter are illustrated in this case? What ethical issues are raised by radiation technology? Basic concepts that are covered in this case are responsibility, accountability and liability. Ethical issues that are raised by radiation technology is when scientist is finding ways to use radiation therapy to destroy cancerous cells while making sure that healthy cells are not being harmed. An incident occurred where Mr. Jerome-Parks â€Å"experienced deafness and near-blindness, ulcers in his mouth and throat, persistent nausea, and severe pain. (Laudon, 2012, p. 131). Organizations did not take the time to properly train doctors and medical technicians therefore incidents like Jerome-Parks happens. The machines that are used to ‘cure’ patients are not being appropriately updated and watch carefully. In this case study we can see that the technicians are not being fully responsible and being careless, and doctors that are not getting the full trainin g for operating the machine. 2. What management, organization and technology factors that was responsible for the problems detailed in this case?The management, organization and technology factors were responsible for the problems detailed in this case because they failed to provide extensive training for doctors, technicians, and machine operations as well as insufficient staffs. They should have thought of creating a mandatory checklist for employees each time the machine was being used. The lack of knowledge on the machines, the lack of reporting these incidents for future references instead the doctors and technicians do not troubleshoot the problem unless it is serious and by that time the patient(s) is already injured.The machines were not well designed, there was software glitch and â€Å"the complexity of new Linear accelerator technology has not been accompanied by with appropriate updates in software† (Laudon, 2012, p. 132). 3. Do you feel that any of the groups inv olved with this issue (hospital administrators, technicians, medical equipment, and software manufacturers) should accept the majority of the blame for these incidents? I feel as if they are all responsible for this issue because if the medical equipment, software manufacturer and technicians were the first people who would be experiencing the machine.The software manufacturer designed the software so they should have known if there was any error that was missed during the trial and error stage. If there was they should’ve continued with more research until the software was nearly perfect because it is what operated the entire machine. The software was the main source of machine to operate because those software engineers were hired for a reason and they had responsibility in executing the errors and debugging them. This also would go on to the medical equipment and technicians because these technicians should already have knowledge on what is right and what is wrong.Technici ans are the one that tries out the machine at the hospital first they are the one that have the main knowledge on how these machines should be operating. All these three should be responsible for this issue since they are part in creating the machine and testing it out. 4. How would a central reporting agency that gathered data on radiation-related accidents help reduce the number of radiation therapy errors in the future? Having a central reporting agency that gathered data of radiation-related accidents could prevent future overdoses, misadministration, and deaths or near deaths.These data can train future and present doctors from doing these incidents, allows the agency to monitor the use of the machine and especially creates a safety environment. If these accidents were to occur more than once than the managers are the MIS could take in the machines for a more detailed examination, changing the policy and procedures. Also reporting the radiation therapy errors can used to teach future doctors, technicians, medical operators about it so they would not make the same mistake again. At the same time this can save many lives that was once put into danger due to the lack of knowledge, carelessness, and laziness. . If you were in charge of designing electronic software for a linear accelerator, what are some features you would include? Are there any features you would avoid? If I were in charge of designing electronic software for a linear accelerator some features I would include: a check list that is embedded within the machine ensuring that everything goes smoothly, a safety button which allows the machine to alert the doctor or technicians that something went wrong and will automatically shut down if the machine seems to malfunction that can do harm to a patient.Making sure that the software is doing its job in saving people’s lives, the software will go through multiple of examination until it is working at its potential. Every time the system seems t o malfunction it will be sent back to the manufacturing for fixing. I would avoid what happened to those patients that died because of the manufacturer’s error. Anything that was at fault will be avoided and things will be done properly and precisely to ensure every part of the machine is working. Work Cited Laudon, Kenneth and Laudon, Jane. (2012). Management Information Systems: Managing the digital film (5th ed. ). Pearson Education Canada.