Panama Technicians Found Guilty

[IGBT]

Text

Technicians Olivia Saldaña González and Alexis Concepción Alveo González were sentenced by the Fourteenth Circuit Court of Panama to four years in prison, following the miscalculation of doses of radiation being given to pelvic cancer patients, according to a report in Panama's La Prensa newspaper and on its web site http://www.prensa.com Thursday.

According to the La Prensa report, 28 patients were affected by the "super-radiation" and 18 eventually died.

 

[dabuddha]

This is why I won't allow any medical work to be done on me in other countries.

 

[kranky]

Anyone interested in reading a great article about this case from the perspective of software development, here's the link.

 

[IGBT]

..ya can't help but wonder about the technical ability of x-ray tech's anywhere. And are they really certified..and is the equipment properly calibrated. Ive noticed calibration stickers on dental x-ray equipment..how about the rest of it and how often are the tech's recertified? I'am shure there's established procedure and all but who's double checking the double check??

 

[Ryan]

"Panamanian"

 

[Goosemaster]

Originally posted by: kranky
Anyone interested in reading a great article about this case from the perspective of software development, here's the link.

wow....I was not ware of the relevacne until I read that...

 

[ttown]

Originally posted by: kranky
Anyone interested in reading a great article about this case from the perspective of software development, here's the link.

Good read, but long.

cliff notes: If you're a programmer, or thinking about becoming one - TEST, TEST, TEST - in every way imaginable. The people who are (apparently) guilty had all the best intentions and were just using software in creative ways.

I've written programs in past jobs and have been amazed at what some users come up with for input. I remember one app specifically, where at the end of inputting some critical info, I popped up a box to verify something. Well, the lead end-user in the department that used that app figured out that if he pressed the F1 key twice, the annoying box wouldn't show up, and it would just save the record and also initiate a new form for another record -- which was good for him, since he batched up his work.
Behind the scenes, the F1 key just acknowleged the warnings (of suspected bad data) that the box had, but did it so fast he didn't notice the flicker of the box on the screen.
I've become a better tester since, but it just goes to show that end-users will do practically anything.

edit: oh, and there's no reason this couldn't have happened in the US. If you got a physician that wanted to accompliksh the same thing, and was too busy to tripple-check the calculations, it could have easily happened here.