30 March - 2 April I Erlangen, Germany

ESTRO Course Report

Course Directors

• Brendan McClean, Medical Physicist, St Lukes Radiation Oncology Network, Dublin (IE)
• Petra Reijnders-Thijssen, Manager Quality & Patient Safety, Maastro, Maastricht (NL)

 

Our multidisciplinary group comprising a medical physicist, a radiation oncologist, and a radiation therapist from South Africa had the opportunity to attend this ESTRO teaching course, which was held in Erlangen, Germany. Having done some research on the expected course content, we arrived with a reasonable sense of what to expect; yet this course managed to surpass those expectations in meaningful ways.

 

Our decision to attend the course was driven by an honest appraisal of our current practice. In our radiotherapy department, risk management has largely been approached reactively; we identify incidents, investigate root causes, and implement corrective measures. The field has been shifting decisively toward prospective risk identification, and we wanted to understand that shift from the people who are leading it.

 

The faculty did not disappoint. It was a privilege to engage with internationally recognised experts in radiotherapy safety, whose collective work on incident learning systems and patient safety frameworks has shaped the field. What distinguished them as educators was not only their depth of knowledge, but their openness to dialogue; they engaged with participants as colleagues rather than simply as an audience.

The most valuable component of the course, particularly regarding an incident learning system, was the introduction to prospective risk management tools. For a quality assurance group that is accustomed to responding to events after the fact, learning to identify potential failure points and to prioritise risks before they materialise was both challenging and eye-opening. The interactive, case-based format of the course made these concepts feel immediately applicable rather than purely theoretical.

 

The extensive group work and multidisciplinary discussions were particularly valuable, as they enabled participants to approach problems from different professional perspectives and they made the learning experience highly collaborative and productive.

 

We also learned that prospective tools, although resource-intensive during initial implementation, offer a level of systematic rigour that reactive analysis cannot replicate. The course equipped us with tactics on how to apply these prospective tools simply and practically.

 

Our key takeaway was that the development of a proactive safety culture need not be overcomplicated. One of the first steps we hope to take is to adapt the language we use and to reframe our incident reporting system as an incident learning system. We believe this subtle but important shift will help to lay the foundation for a strengthened departmental safety culture.

 

The sessions on cyberattacks and the role of artificial intelligence in healthcare were also particularly eye-opening. These topics highlighted emerging risks that may not always receive the level of attention they warrant, and we plan to initiate departmental discussions around them.

 

The value of international peer learning, sharing experiences across different healthcare systems and resource environments, is itself a powerful safety intervention. The course has equipped us with both a practical framework and a shared language to bring these ideas to our department.

 

To colleagues who have not yet explored ESTRO's offering in this area, we would encourage them to do so without hesitation. The combination of expert faculty, exchange of ideas among international peers, and structured, clinically grounded content makes this course genuinely transformative for anyone working at the intersection of quality and patient safety in radiotherapy.

 

With thanks,

Dr. Nazia Fakie (radiation oncologist)

Sarel van Deventer (medical physicist)

Sajida Abdulla (radiation therapist & quality assurance officer)

 

Going Further: What Real Radiotherapy Safety Requires Today? Watch the video!

Taking advantage of having world-renowned experts on-site during the course, we took the opportunity to record a short interview on one of the most critical emerging threats facing healthcare today: cybersecurity.

Watch our 8 min video below to hear the experts' key recommendations on how to prepare for, respond to, and mitigate cyber threats to protect both your department and your patients.

Watch the experts video on cybersecurity in radiotherapy departments here