Poster - Thur Eve - 05: Safety systems and failure modes and effects analysis for a magnetic resonance image guided...

An online Magnetic Resonance guided Radiation Therapy (MRgRT) system is under development. The system is comprised of an MRI with the capability of travel between and into HDR brachytherapy and external beam radiation therapy vaults. The system will provide on-line MR images immediately prior to radiation therapy. The MR images will be registered to a planning image and used for image guidance. With the intention of system safety we have performed a failure modes and effects analysis.

A process tree of the facility function was developed. Using the process tree as well as an initial design of the facility as guidelines possible failure modes were identified, for each of these failure modes root causes were identified. For each possible failure the assignment of severity, detectability and occurrence scores was performed. Finally suggestions were developed to reduce the possibility of an event.

The process tree consists of nine main inputs and each of these main inputs consisted of 5 - 10 sub inputs and tertiary inputs were also defined. The process tree ensures that the overall safety of the system has been considered. Several possible failure modes were identified and were relevant to the design, construction, commissioning and operating phases of the facility. The utility of the analysis can be seen in that it has spawned projects prior to installation and has lead to suggestions in the design of the facility.