During my fascinating journey of more than five decades through medicine, especially radiotherapy and oncology, I greatly appreciated the chance to get involved in ESTRO, in particular in its various educational activities and formats. I started as a highly motivated resident in the 80s (courses in basic physics, biology, research methods, the target concepts of the International Commission on Radiation Units and Measurements, head-and-neck cancer, gynaecological cancer, quality assurance and brachytherapy). I continued as a faculty member in the brachytherapy course (1993 - 2007) and later as course director of the gynae course in Europe (2004-2020) and in India (2017-2020), while I also took part in the masterclass, the imaging and the endovascular course. I finished my activities with the arrival of COVID, which changed also the education world substantially.

My personal professional benefit came mainly from learning clinically relevant concepts and attitudes through in-person education, communication and interaction with peers, as student and teacher, in a very friendly, open-minded, international setting, within an atmosphere of jointly trying to improve clinical patient care and clinical research, in Europe and beyond.

By 2006, we had an overwhelming wealth of highly ranked ESTRO educational activities in a complex bundle that had been enlarged step-by-step by many people over two decades. These activities mainly took the form of live-course, some were in other formats. We decided, in our multidisciplinary group of highly motivated, experienced education specialists within the education and training committee (ETC) and in ESTRO , to create a stable framework, a “house” – the ESTRO School. In ESTRO, there was then ample space to develop such an important future pathway. The School needed to become well-integrated into overall ESTRO activities (committees, meetings, congresses, etc); to structure, professionalise, standardise and complete the multidisciplinary comprehensive educational programme; to improve in “agogics” with interactive education, and therefore to improve competences and also skills; and to secure and brand this essential part of ESTRO for education and training. Not to forget the international extension of the ESTRO School, in particular into Asia.

We introduced various platforms for communication and interaction: one-day ETC meetings every three months in Brussels, Belgium; retreats for our faculties (>200 teachers); links to ESTRO committees and ESTRO-leadership, to young ESTRO and to IAEA; new teaching formats such as online platforms (FALCON); “teach the teachers”; Summer Schools on oncology for medical students; hands-on workshops; Multi-Disciplinary Tumour Board Sessions; and above all an overall frame for the educational and teaching course programme. We further developed our base, which was the European core curricula, for all our disciplines, alongside a handbook for teaching courses, a quality audit, a continuous QA procedure, etc.

We tried our best to strengthen the major overall ESTRO educational aim, which was to improve patient care, together, through better evidence-based multi-disciplinary education and training that could lead to more insights, advanced skills and more patient-oriented attitudes... and to keep to a minimum the level of formalisation and bureaucracy in ESTRO education.

My major personal drive came from the strong motivation of peers and friends at all levels of the ESTRO School; the outstanding leadership group in the ETC including the essential ESTRO staff; the School teachers and the ESTRO leaders; the growing appreciation of the ESTRO School; and last but not least, from my continuous personal commitment as a teacher in the different formats of the gynaecological cancer course, from which I experienced directly the impact of these advanced forms of interactive teaching and training on clinical practice in Europe, Canada, and in Asia.

The ESTRO School, in its present comprehensive, multidisciplinary form, represents for me the most advanced postgraduate teaching in radiotherapy and oncology in the world. The essential backbone is the outstanding motivation of all persons involved in the School activities, which reflects a “value driven business model”, based on long standing European principles and educational standards. Practising this model enables rapid and efficient multidisciplinary dissemination of new knowledge and new methods for patient care, so that they can spread and be translated and integrated into clinical practice to save patients’ lives and to reduce adverse side effects.

Prof Emeritus Richard Pötter, MD,
Director of the ESTRO School (2006–2016)
Department of Radiation Oncology
Comprehensive Cancer Centre                                                                                                             Medical University of Vienna
Vienna, Austria