In the wake of Hurricane Maria, a devastating storm that produced the longest blackout in U.S. history, radiation oncologists from the mainland United States and Puerto Rico prepared a set of crisis-planning tips for radiation therapy clinics to minimize gaps in cancer treatment after a catastrophic event. Their emergency preparedness suggestions were published online April 15 in Practical Radiation Oncology, the clinical practice journal of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO).
“Worst-case scenarios do occur, and if you wait for something to happen and then start preparing, it’s too late,” said Hiram A. Gay, MD, an associate professor of radiation oncology at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and lead author of the article. “You need to have systems in place so that patients are better taken care of when disaster hits.”
The paper — a compilation of guidance from experts including radiation oncologists who were in Puerto Rico during the disaster — provides “a list of what we wish we had done beforehand and what we needed most afterwards,” the authors wrote.
Read more at American Society for Radiation Oncology
Photo Credit: The Naval Research Laboratory/ NOAA via Wikimedia Commons
