Panama

Additional reporting by Berta Ramona Thayer in Panama

As software spreads from computers to the engines of automobiles to robots in factories to X-ray machines in hospitals, defects are no longer a problem to be managed. They have to be pred

’s Cancer Institute Base Case">

Organization: National Cancer Institute

Headquarters: Gorgas Hospital, Ancon Hill, Panama Canal Zone, Panama

Mission: To treat and cure patients with cancer.

Director: Juan Pablo Bares, M.D.

Financials: Funded by the Panamanian government.

Challenge: Find resources to treat a patient load that has more than quadrupled since 1997, with 10 to 15 new patients a day.

Baseline Goals:

• Improve quality-assurance programs, to avoid accidental patient deaths or injuries.
• Install third linear accelerator, to shorten waiting list for cancer treatments.
• Eliminate subsidies paid to private hospitals for overflow work, which has cost the government $10 million over the past three years.