Recommended ESTRO Core Curriculum for Radiation Oncologists/Radiotherapists 4th Edition (April 2019)
Recommended ESTRO Core Curriculum for Radiation Oncologists/Radiotherapists 4th Edition (April 2019)
The European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology (ESTRO) developed a “Minimum Curriculum for the Theoretical Education in Radiation Oncology in Europe” in 1991. This Core Curriculum was a great success and played a pivotal role in establishing comparable standards for training across Europe. With the marked evolution in radiation oncology technology and methods a second edition was published in 2004. This was endorsed by thirty-five National Societies. It was integrated into legal or national guidelines in several European countries and provided a significant step towards harmonisation across Europe. The third edition published in 2011, endorsed by 28 national societies, changed the focus from theoretical to competency based education defining the minimum observable abilities radiation oncologists/radiotherapists needed for optimal patient outcomes. It was based on the seven roles of a physician identified in the CanMEDS 2005 physician competency framework and was endorsed by the European Union of Medical Specialists (UEMS). Since that time:
• Radiotherapy technology and techniques have continued to develop and to be more widely adopted.
• Survival rates for many cancers have increased increasing the importance of managing survivorship.
• The CanMEDS framework was revised in 2015. The role of “Manager” was changed to “Leader” and there were changes in all the roles emphasising the patient’s perspective and patient safety [1].
• The CanMEDS 2015 framework contained the concept of Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs), “A key task of a discipline that can be entrusted to an individual who possesses the appropriate level of competence” [1]
• A Delphi survey by the Global Radiation Oncology Collaboration in Education (GRaCE) group defined a leader role curriculum for radiation oncology [2].
• The European Commission Expert Group on Cancer Control established a European Union Implementation Group tasked with exploring the training of clinical cancer specialists with particular emphasis on the interdisciplinary training of doctors in the clinical cancer specialties. They proposed competences in, radiation oncology, systemic therapy and surgery that should be acquired by all cancer specialists regardless of discipline.
The decision was therefore made to revise the core curriculum and this process was started in 2017 with a meeting of representatives of 20 European National Societies, a senior radiation oncology educationalist from Canada, representatives of yESTRO including trainees and RTTs. Radiobiologists and physicists have also contributed to the revision and multiple iterations have been developed with the advice of representatives of 27 European Countries. The final draft has been reviewed by senior radiation oncology educationalists from Australia and Canada.The curriculum defines the EPAs and competences that trainees need to develop, the characteristics of Training Programs that will enable the trainees to develop these and the characteristics of assessment systems that will provide assurance that the trainees have developed them.
