2024 RO-ILS Physics Safety Stars
International Day of Medical Physics, on Thursday, November 7, 2024, is an opportunity to honor the important work of physicists. RO-ILS has been developing great catch events for the past few years to bring attention to the important role physicists play in incident learning. The 2024 Physicist Great Catch event shares a de-identified event in which an attentive medical physicist identified an upstream error that could have resulted in a geometric miss to the wrong spinal region.
In order to recognize specific medical physicists for their contributions to patient safety, RO-ILS began soliciting nominations from RO-ILS participants last year. Three 2023 Physics Safety Stars were celebrated and three new individuals have been selected for national recognition for their efforts in patient safety this year.
Many fantastic physicists were nominated, and all are worthy of acknowledgement in their own right. The following three medical physicists (listed In alphabetical order) join the newest cohort of 2024 Safety Stars.
 | Michael Dance, MS, DABR |
"Michael is truly a shining star in leading and supporting the culture of safety in radiation oncology at UNC. As lead physicist in our Quality and Safety Committee, he leads the weekly meetings where we review newly submitted safety events and facilitates conversations with all teams. He has the ability to focus the conversation while allowing all team members to be heard. He has identified and completed multiple team projects and individual initiatives - he keeps a personal list of small ongoing quality and safety projects that he wants to tackle! He has spearheaded multiple major departmental initiatives including: 1) completely redesigning our simulation assessment order set, 2) standardizing PTV margins among disease sites, 3) standardizing organ-at-risk contouring, and 4) converting our treatment planning templates to TG-263 nomenclature. His efforts to redesign simulation assessments required consolidation of the needs/wants of a large team of physicians and the radiation therapists, a year-long process of gaining permission from our hospital IT department to make edits in the OIS, and significant testing efforts prior to implementation. He additionally is working to streamline efforts between the three incident learning systems available to us: RO-ILS, our departmental Good Catch system, and our hospital-wide SAFE system. Michael’s dedication to departmental quality and safety have directly led to his involvement with nearly every specialized procedure in our department. He makes our department a better and safer place to work!"
— Ashley Weiner, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Clinic Medical Director for the Medical Center
 | Thomas Mazur, PhD |
“In my role, I see all our department’s events, including the accolades and Tom Mazur has had the most frequent mentions in the accolades since I began tracking. In 2024, he was recognized for a variety of reasons such as his exceptional planning skills – ‘he went the extra mile on a very challenging LATTICE patient with a massive abdominal tumor and really pulled a miracle of a plan out that is phenomenal, given the constraints of this patient’s geometry. I know he personally worked in excess of 10 hours on this one patient, and it is this type of dedication to patient care that you don’t see from everyone.’ ‘It doesn't matter how big or small, Tom is always willing to drop what he is doing and offer his assistance and mentorship.’ He received accolades for a fantastic SRS linac presentation - ‘Tom's knowledge and passion for this material were evident throughout his discussion and all attendees benefited from his thoughtful presentation.’ In another instance, he took care of the early new start when adaptive team members were delayed due to frozen rain and icy road conditions! When many computers were affected by CrowdStrike, he jumped in to help with several treatment approvals while the submitter was busy with all linacs. He always contributes wherever there is a need! Teamwork is a dreamwork!”
— Angela Nestel, MSN, RN, Patient Safety and Quality Coordinator – Radiation Oncology
 | Tatsiana Reynolds, PhD |
"Tatsiana's invaluable contributions to the RO-ILS program and her pivotal role in the culture of safety program make her an indispensable member of our team. Leading the quality safety program, she has demonstrated exceptional vigilance in identifying near misses, particularly in the realms of 4DCT and breath-hold ITV generation. Tatsiana's keen attention to detail extends to diagnostic imaging, where she has successfully identified errors in the ordering process, preventing under- or over-contouring of target volumes during the planning phase. Her impact is not only quantitative but qualitative, as she stands out as the top contributor to RO-ILS events by volume. Tatsiana's commitment to ensuring the highest quality of care for our patients is evident in her continuous efforts to enhance safety protocols and address potential pitfalls in our procedures. In summary, Tatsiana plays a crucial role in maintaining and advancing the standards of excellence in our medical practices."
— Mustafa Ozer, MS, DABR, Chief Medical Physicist
