Course Directors

●    Núria Jornet, Medical Physicist, Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, Barcelona (ES)
●    Nicolas Pourel, Radiation Oncologist, Institut Sainte Catherine, Avignon (FR)

Teachers

●    Ajay Aggarwal, Clinical Oncologist, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London (UK)
●    Karine Gerard, Medical Physicist, Institut de Cancérologie de Lorraine, Nancy (FR)
●    Coen Hurkmans, Medical Physicist, Catharina Ziekenhuis, Eindhoven (NL)
●    Amanda Caissie, Radiation Oncologist, Halifax Nova Scotia (CA)
●    Marjolein van Os, Erasmus Medical Center Rotterdam Daniel den Hoed Cancer Center, Rotterdam (NL)

Local Organiser

●   Efi Koutsouveli, Medical Physicist, HYGEIA Hospital (GR)​

This course is part of a two-year cycle on quality management in radiotherapy, consisting of two complementary modules:
●    Risk management and patient safety
●    Quality assessment and improvement methodologies.
 

This course aims to:
•    Cultivate Quality Champions: Empower participants to become leaders in fostering a robust quality culture within their departments.
•    Establish Effective Quality Systems: Provide a comprehensive guide to setting up quality systems, including defining meaningful quality indicators and implementing methods to monitor and improve quality continuously.
•    Enhance Awareness of Clinical Audits and Clinical Trials: Highlight the role of clinical audits and clinical trials in strengthening a department's quality system and driving evidence-based improvements.
•    Build Clinical Audit Structures: Equip participants with the knowledge to develop and implement effective clinical audit frameworks.
•    Understand Accreditation and Certification: Offer an overview of accreditation and certification systems, emphasizing their importance in maintaining high standards of departmental operations.
•    Optimize Staffing and Roles: Address critical issues of staffing levels and role definitions, focusing on enhancing operational efficiency, ensuring optimal patient care, and achieving effective resource allocation.
 

Learning Outcomes
By the end of this course participants should be able to set up or review the quality system in their department.
In particular they should be able to:
●    Explain how risk management, quality monitoring and quality improvement are linked
●    Construct a process chart from the different steps in the treatment
●    Define quality indicators and quality standards
●    Compare tools and methods to monitor quality, application to radiotherapy
●    Apply LEAN method for quality improvement
●    Explain how clinical audits are set up and how they contribute to quality assessment and improvement
●    Explain the differences between clinical audit, ISO certification, inspections.
●    List different methods for technology assessment
●    Discuss workforce needs.

Course Content
Lectures will be held in the morning followed by practical cases and discussion in the afternoon. We aim to allow the participants to put to practice what will have been discussed during the morning lectures and to learn how to work in a multidisciplinary and international group. 
•    From risk management to quality improvement: how can we use the information that we get from FMEA, fault tree analysis, etc. to feed our QI system?
•    Quality assessment:
- metrics for quality measurement: quality indicators
- quality standards
- monitoring quality indicators (general)
- how to interpret quality measures
- monitoring quality indicators through SPC
- how should tolerance and action levels be set?
●    Methods for quality improvement:
- introduction to different methods
- a focus on LEAN
●    Quality improvement strategies: clinical audits and feedback
●    Technology assessment methods:
- cost-effectiveness studies: HERO project
- QA in clinical trials
●    Staffing levels in RT
●    European directives on quality and safety in radiotherapy.
Prerequisites
The two courses on Quality Management, Risk Management and Quality Assessment, have been designed to be complementary and it is recommended to attend both to get a complete picture of quality management. However, the order in which they are taken does not matter. To fully profit from the course it is recommended that participants have at least three years’ experience in a radiation oncology or medical physics department to have a complete picture of the radiotherapy process.
Teaching Methods
●    12 hours of lectures
●    5 hours of practical workshops
●    3 hours of case discussions.
Methods of Assessment
●    Evaluation form
●    MCQ.

Key Words
Quality management, Process optimization, Quality indicators, Clinical Audits, Lean, SPC, Workforce availability, technology assessment, Quality System. 
 

The preliminary programme is available here.

Accreditation
Application for CME recognition will be submitted to the European Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (EACCME), an institution of the European Union of Medical Specialists (UEMS). EACCME credits are recognized by the American Medical Association towards the Physician’s Recognition Award (PRA). Information on the status of the applications can be obtained from the ESTRO office.
Application for CDP credits will be submitted to the European Board for Accreditation in Medical Physics (EBAMP). Information on the status of the application can be obtained from the ESTRO office
 

Titania Hotel Athens

52, Panepistimiou 10678
Tel: +30.210-33.26.000 
e-mail: info@titania.gr

The venue has created a voucher code for participants of this event wishing to stay at the same hotel. To receive the 10% discount, bookings need to be done through their website www.titania.gr. The code ESTRO2025 should be added under the field “Voucher”.

Membership

ESTRO members can order products at substantially reduced prices. To benefit from the member registration rate, you must subscribe for the ESTRO membership 2025 BEFORE registering to the course. To become an ESTRO member, benefit from the member registration rate and discover the many other member advantages, please visit the membership page.

Fees

* Members with specialty RadiationTherapist (RTT) may register at the In-Training fee

The fee includes the course material, coffees, lunches, and the social event.

Advance registration & payment are required.

Access to homework and/or course material will become available upon receipt of full payment.

Insurance and cancellation

Participants are strongly advised to take out their own personal insurance policy. ESTRO does not accept liability for individual medical, travel or personal accidents or incidents. Participants are strongly advised to take insurance policies to cover flight and accommodation cancellation penalties. ESTRO will not refund any travel or accommodation expenses.

For any cancellation made by the course or workshop participant, ESTRO School Events Cancellation Policy will be followed and all stated penalty fees will be applied.

Reduced fees

Members from emerging countries may register at a preferential rate of 350 Euro. Emerging country fee applies to individuals from low-income and lower-middle-income economies according to the World Bank listing here.

Additionally, all specialties from the following countries can benefit from this preferential rate: Albania, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Hungary, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Russian Federation, Serbia, Turkey, Ukraine. 

The preferential rate of 350 Euro is granted automatically when you click on the  BOOK NOW  button and the three conditions below are met:

1. Only ESTRO members for 2025 are eligible (please make sure your 2025 membership is in order before you click on the BOOK NOW  button)
2. Only one course per person per year can be subsidized by ESTRO
3. Sponsored candidates are not entitled to reduced fees (the invoicing address has to be the one of the participant)  

 Please note:

• We can only guarantee a certain number of reduced fees per course
• Application deadlines are the same as early registration fees

ESTRO is pleased to offer a special discounted fee for institutions that register a team (RTT+RO+MP), making this a valuable opportunity to strengthen both individual expertise and team cohesion. When 3 participants register together, the participant with the lowest applicable fee will be free. Please find the application form here. Once it is complete, please send it to education@estro.org.