The ROSQ Committee was established in 2016 to address issues of safety and quality from an ESTRO perspective. Safety and quality are integral to the achievement of the ESTRO Vision but, prior to this, the profession specific committees have addressed issues of safety and quality individually. The aim is to position ESTRO at the forefront of Safety, Quality and Risk Management in Europe. It was felt that a single focus for these issues was necessary to achieve cohesion and clarity of action. The ROSQC is multidisciplinary reflecting the importance of involvement in safety and quality for all professionals and has an international component to reflect the importance of collaboration with other professional societies addressing similar issues.

Read here the ROSQC Strategy for the next 3 years.

The ROSQC activities are aimed at improving safety and quality in the preparation and delivery of radiotherapy and raising compliance of member states with the legal requirements defined in the European Directives in the area of radiation safety and quality. The committee membership reflects all disciplines involved in treatment preparation and delivery and reflects the international interest in all aspects of safer radiotherapy.

As part of enabling compliance, ESTRO adopted the ROSEIS (Radiation Oncology Safety Education and Information System) incident reporting and learning system which is available to all members through their ESTRO login. Linkages with other reporting and learning systems will enable sharing and analysis of commonly reported incidents. Summary reports will be prepared.  

The ROSQC has developed education material through a series of webinars and lectures and has links to publications on and to all international organisations related to quality and safety in radiotherapy. Collaboration is ongoing with HERCA and COCIR on joint or endorsed publications and guidelines.

Future activities include:


•    Additional online education material
•    Expansion of the ROSEIS dataset to include new techniques/technologies, ALERTS, and risk assessment methodologies
•    Analysis of incident reports and dissemination of findings
•    Development of networks to share information on incidents and near incidents
•    Impact and management of cyberattacks in radiotherapy
•    Quality guidelines
•    The role of Peer Review
•    Defining radiation protection in radiotherapy
•    Highlighting the importance of safety in radiotherapy to a wider audience

Chair: Petra Reijnders-Thijssen, RTT, Maastro (NL) 

Michael Baumgartl, Medical Physicist, University Hospital Zurich (CH) 

Aileen Flavin, Radiation Oncologist, University College Cork (IE) 

Velimir Karadža, RTT, University of Applied Health Sciences Zagreb (HR) 

Maeve Kearney, RTT, Trinity College Dublin (IE) 

Philippe Maingon, Radiation Oncologist, Hôpital Pitié-Salpêtrière, Sorbonne Université (FR) 

Samuel Peters, Medical Physicist, Kantonsspital St.Gallen (CH) 

  

ROSEIS Working Group: 

Chair: Mary Coffey, RTT, Trinity College Dublin (IE) 

  

International Liaison Group: 

Amanda Caissie, Radiation Oncologist, Dalhousie University (CA) 

Geoff Delaney, Radiation Oncologist, South-Western Sydney Local Health District (AUS) 

Brian Liszewski, RTT, University of Toronto (CA) 

 

Past Chairs: 

Mary Coffey, RTT, Trinity College Dublin (IE)

Find out about the articles of the ROSQC – ESTRO Newsletter