Can national clinical audits and quality indicators help the journey in further improving the quality and safety of radiotherapy treatments?

Radiation therapy (RT) is an essential treatment modality for cancer care and cure. Over the years, radiation treatments have become more complex and more computerized leading to highly precise treatment approaches maximising loco-regional control while minimising toxicity. Safe and effective radiotherapy delivery however requires the implementation of adapted quality assurance (QA) programs and integral quality management (QM) systems, favouring continuous quality improvement. Throughout the past decades, the College of Physicians for Radiation Oncology Centres has been the source of numerous national initiatives, which have fostered and accompanied radiation oncology departments in taking the steps towards increased quality of care. This includes the implementation of peer reviewed clinical audits and the definition and monitoring of radiotherapy-specific structural, process and outcome quality indicators (RT-QI). The aim of this thesis work was to facilitate the implementation and to structurally analyse the quality criteria collected through both initiatives and to validate their use as quality improvement tools.(SP - Sciences de la santé publique) -- UCL, 202