Problems With The Therac-25

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Multiple problems with the Therac-25 Factors were lapses in good safety design Insufficient testing of the software Bugs in the software that controlled the machine Inadequate system of reporting and investigating accidents Attorneys for the family against the hospital. Hopsital technicians made gross errors when operating the Therac-25. Errors became so common, hospital technicians habitually performed overrides. Warnings were ignored or assumed to be benign errors. Employees also failed to take standard precautions, failed to make constant contact with patients during procedures. Human errors in the overdose of patients were evident. When dealing with human life, technicians were clearly careless, non-attentive in some cases, and showed a lack of appreciation for the risk involved in the operation of the machinery. Other factors were poor training of technicians as well as a lack of sufficient penalty to the technicians involved. Attorneys for the family against the machine manufacturer (AECL) The Therac-25 design eliminated many of the hardware safety features that been built into previous designs, assuming the software was functioning correctly and eliminated the need for safety features. Prior machines had been known to have software issues that would frequently shut down the machine. No overdoses were given because the hardware intervened. These features were eliminated in the Therac-25, an obvious example of poor judgment on the part of the manufacturer. The manufacturer of the machine responded irresponsibly in investigating incidents and in failing to make changes immediately after the very first incident. Attorneys for the family against the programmer who wrote the software. The software in previous designs had mal-functioned on a number of occasions. It was clear that there were software concerns, yet the same software was used in the

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