Producing effective treatment, enhancing safety: Medical physicists’ strategies to ensure quality in radiotherapy

The purpose of this article is to understand the way in which medical physicists take into account treatment effectiveness and safety when selecting a treatment plan, with respect to the medical prescription and the technical, human and organizational resources available. Data-gathering was based on the allo-confrontation method: 14 medical physicists from five different treatment centers commented on real treatment plans that had been drawn up by their colleagues. Results show that medical physicists have two means at their disposal to control treatment effectiveness and safety: risk avoidance and risk reduction. Risk avoidance is achieved when conceiving the treatment solution. Risk reduction occurs after the design of the plan and consists in accompanying and assisting the radiographers at the workstation where the treatment is carried out.