The means for radiosurgery quality management: Novalis Certified

Timothy Solberg, PhD, of the University of California San Francisco gives an update on Novalis Certified. He begins by highlighting a safety profile assessment survey conducted in the United States about patterns of practice for safety-critical processes in radiation oncology. He goes on to discuss medical errors and their consequences and focuses in specifically on preventable errors in stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) and stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT). He highlights how Novalis Certified promotes a “just” culture that translates to a safe culture. Solberg then outlines why the independent Novalis Certified program exists: To standardize SRS/SBRT at universally high levels and to prevent SRS/SBRT errors. He outlines what the program does as well as its structure and goals and explains in more detail the certification process.