Washington (Nuclear News Flashes)
11Jun2001
NRC issues reminder to medical licensees after Panama overexposures

NRC issued a notice today reminding medical licensees that agency rules (10 CFR 35.32) require them to establish and maintain a written quality management program. In an information notice supplementing earlier correspondence on the overexposures of 28 cancer patients treated at the National Oncology Institute in Panama (IN 2001-08, supplement 1), the NRC said an IAEA team believes the radiotherapy equipment worked properly but that there was incorrect data input into the computer. The therapy unit and computerized treatment planning software are regulated in the U.S. by the Food & Drug Administration (FDA). However, NRC staff has been assisting the FDA and Multidata, the company in St. Louis, Mo., which supplied the unit and software.