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In-Class Activity: The Therac-25: Abraham Johnson 11/10/20

The document discusses a case involving the Therac-25 radiation therapy machine. It identifies several software and design problems with the Therac-25, including bugs in the software that controlled the machines. Multiple incidents occurred where patients received massive overdoses of radiation, severely injuring and killing some patients. Factors that contributed to the incidents included lapses in safety design, insufficient testing, and an inadequate system for reporting issues. As a judge assigned to the case, the writer would hold all parties - the programmer, manufacturer, and hospitals using the machines - responsible and require improved training and extensive testing to prevent future errors.

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48 views2 pages

In-Class Activity: The Therac-25: Abraham Johnson 11/10/20

The document discusses a case involving the Therac-25 radiation therapy machine. It identifies several software and design problems with the Therac-25, including bugs in the software that controlled the machines. Multiple incidents occurred where patients received massive overdoses of radiation, severely injuring and killing some patients. Factors that contributed to the incidents included lapses in safety design, insufficient testing, and an inadequate system for reporting issues. As a judge assigned to the case, the writer would hold all parties - the programmer, manufacturer, and hospitals using the machines - responsible and require improved training and extensive testing to prevent future errors.

Uploaded by

Abraham Johnson
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Abraham Johnson

11/10/20

In-Class Activity: The Therac-25

Review this case from your textbook and search the Internet for additional resources on

this case. Write a one page analysis addressing the following questions:

 What were the software & design problems? Identify and list them

The software was a controlled radiation-therapy machine used to treat with

[Link]-25 machines at four medical centers gave massive overdoses

of radiation to six patients and some received more than100 times the

intended dose. These incidents caused serve and painful injuries and dealth

of three patients.

 Why so many incidents?

Studies showed that there are so many factors contributed to the injuries and

deaths. The factors include lapses in good safety design, insufficient testing,

bugs in the software that controlled the machines, and an inadequate system

of reporting and investigating the accidents.

 Who’s largely responsible or to blame?


The technician is be blame for the incident, because she failed to measure

the radioactive drugs administered. She just used what looked like the right

amount. This was lack of more practice and poor training.

 If you were a judge who had to assign responsibility in this case, how

much responsibility would you assign to the programmer, the

manufacturer, and the hospital or clinic using the machine? Looking at

this whole episode if I were a judge I will make sure proper training is done

with more practices to avoid mistakes. In addition I will assign to the

programmer, the manufacture ,and the hospital or clinic to do so many testing

to be sure, who going do the jobs.

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