Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Jul 25;28(3):429-432.
doi: 10.5603/RPOR.a2023.0035. eCollection 2023.

IROCA-TES: Improving Quality in Radiation Oncology through Clinical Audits - Training and Education for Standardization

Julian Malicki  1   2 , Carla Lopes Castro  3 , Magdalena Fundowicz  4 , Marco Krengli  5   6 , Carmen Llacer-Moscardo  7 , Sebastian Curcean  8 , Carles Muñoz Montplet  9 , Luisa Carvalho  3 , Ewelina Konstanty  10 , Tania Hernandez Barragan  11 , Carla Pisani  5 , Istvan Laszlo  8 , Miquel Macià Garau  12 , Marta Kruszyna-Mochalska  10   1 , Joana Lencart  13 , Dorota Zwierzchowska  2 , Alvar Rosello Serrano  12 , Adelina Brezae  7 , Eva Loureiro Varela  14 , Piotr Milecki  4   1 , Micol Zannetti  5 , Ovidiu Coza  15 , Eva Gonzalez  16 , Debora Beldì  5 , Ferran Guedea  12
Affiliations

IROCA-TES: Improving Quality in Radiation Oncology through Clinical Audits - Training and Education for Standardization

Julian Malicki et al. Rep Pract Oncol Radiother. .

Abstract

Background: Clinical audits are an important tool to objectively assess clinical protocols, procedures, and processes and to detect deviations from good clinical practice. The main aim of this project is to determine adherence to a core set of consensus- based quality indicators and then to compare the institutions in order to identify best practices.

Materials and methods: We conduct a multicentre, international clinical audit of six comprehensive cancer centres in Poland, Spain, Italy, Portugal, France, and Romania as a part of the project, known as IROCATES (Improving Quality in Radiation Oncology through Clinical Audits - Training and Education for Standardization).

Results: Radiotherapy practice varies from country to country, in part due to historical, economic, linguistic, and cultural differences. The institutions developed their own processes to suit their existing clinical practice.

Conclusions: We believe that this study will contribute to establishing the value of routinely performing multi-institutional clinical audits and will lead to improvement of radiotherapy practice at the participating centres.

Keywords: clinical audit; quality indicators; radiotherapy.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest None declared.

References

    1. Malicki J, Piotrowski T, Guedea F, et al. Treatment-integrated imaging, radiomics, and personalised radiotherapy: the future is at hand. Rep Pract Oncol Radiother. 2022;27(4):734–743. doi: 10.5603/RPOR.a2022.0071. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Adamczyk M, Piotrowski T, Adamiak E, et al. Dosimetric consequences of prostate-based couch shifts on the precision of dose delivery during simultaneous IMRT irradiation of the prostate, seminal vesicles and pelvic lymph nodes. Phys Med. 2014;30(2):228–233. doi: 10.1016/j.ejmp.2013.06.003. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Peszynska-Piorun M, Malicki J, Golusinski W. Doses in organs at risk during head and neck radiotherapy using IMRT and 3D-CRT. Radiol Oncol. 2012;46(4):328–336. doi: 10.2478/v10019-012-0050-y. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Malicki J, Bly R, Bulot M, et al. Patient safety in external beam radiotherapy, results of the ACCIRAD project: Recommendations for radiotherapy institutions and national authorities on assessing risks and analysing adverse error- events and near misses. Radiother Oncol. 2018;127(2):164–170. doi: 10.1016/j.radonc.2018.04.006. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Grau C, Defourny N, Malicki J, et al. HERO consortium. Radiotherapy equipment and departments in the European countries: final results from the ESTRO-HERO survey. Radiother Oncol. 2014;112(2):155–164. doi: 10.1016/j.radonc.2014.08.029. - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources