Towards equity in turbulent Europe: ESTRO, European cooperation and the European Commission

Abstract

The European Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (ESTRO) is nearing its 25th anniversary. Although it is well past it’s childhood and adolescence, it is reaching a milestone which offers the chance to reflect on the past and gaze a little into the future. An important ESTRO activity along with scientific conferences, the journal [17] and teaching courses has always been to carry out educational, infrastructural and research projects (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 13, 15, 16, 19). Many of these have been funded by the European Union whose aim is to provide its citizens with equitable and adequate access to high quality medical services and to stimulate European co-operation. In this issue of Radiotherapy and Oncology, Bentzen et al. [6] and Slotman et al. [21] report on an important radiotherapy infrastructure project and Germaine Heeren, ESTRO public relations and project development officer, on the occasion of her retirement, describes the evolution of ESTRO and the range of activities it has gone through over the last two decades to reach this anniversary and milestone [13]. The success of a membership organisation with research as one of its remits, is not only measured in kilometres of written scientific text, but also by the less tangible but no less important web of relationships it has fostered. Germaine Heeren, in her 20-year-career at ESTRO worked with passion and personal involvement as a magnet for many people and many diverse projects. She describes how such projects, whether involving research, QA or education, brought together people from the whole of Europe, well beyond EU borders [13]. The European Union and the Commission should be pleased that their support of ESTRO has been so successful. The end result is undoubtedly better research output and improved care for cancer patients in Europe. The achievements of Germaine Heeren, who was honoured in 2004 with the first Emmanuel van der Schueren Award for lifetime contribution to European Radiation Oncology, is seen through her article written with infectious enthusiasm. The award is a well deserved recognition for a career devoted to the European ideals. One of the latest projects directly stimulated by her is the Quantification of Radiation Therapy Infrastructure and Staffing Needs (QUARTS) study. Two reports from this