ESTRO 2024 - Abstract Book

S284

Brachytherapy - Gynaecology

ESTRO 2024

Purpose/Objective:

Affordable teaching may improve cancer management in low-middle income countries (LMICs). On 01.09.2022, we established a free, non-profit online platform for education about cervical cancer, based on voluntary teaching by a faculty of leading experts in cervical cancer radiotherapy. Working with national societies, we bring courses to countries with high burden of cervical cancer and/or limited access to treatment. So far, we created 3 country specific courses for 1119 participants from 3 LMICs. We present an interim analysis of the learning impact of the course for LMIC2, which is currently underway.

Material/Methods:

Working with the LMIC2 oncology society, an international faculty of 29 experts was assembled and contributed 23 hours of pre-recorded teaching including lectures, quizzes, practical demonstrations, procedure videos, rapid Q&A sessions, and off-line chats. The emphasis of the course curriculum was on CT-guided cervical cancer brachytherapy. The course was planned to stay open for three months, during which time the students could access the content at their convenience. Pre-and post-course surveys were performed to assess participants’ characteristics. Pre-course knowledge test – a quiz with 41 questions from 12 pedagogic domains and a 60% passing threshold - was repeated post-course with identical questions. The course questions reflected the learning objectives. We analyzed the survey results and compared the pre-and post-course scores of the knowledge test in an overall assessment and separately for each of the 12 pedagogic domains. The impact of student characteristics on the quiz score was assessed. Chi-square and t-test were used, using p-value of 0.05 as the significance limit. So far, 340/537 (63%) registered course participants completed 10-99% of the program and 76(14%) completed the entire LMIC2 course, including the pre- and post-course surveys and quizzes. The latter cohort is the subject of the current interim report. Out of the 76 students, 41(54%) and 35(46%) have <5 and ³5 years’ clinical experience in brachytherapy. 18(24%), 29(38%) and 29(38%) treat <50, 50-100, and >100 cervical cancer patients/year with radiotherapy +/- chemotherapy. On a 10-grade scale, the participants rated the course with 9.4 +/-0.84 points. Our online learning platform on which the course is running, was rated with 9.6 +/-0.64. All 76(100%) students would recommend the course to colleagues and would attend a post-course workshop. 57(75%) found the number of lectures just right and 19(25%) too high. 13(17%) found the content too repetitive/long, 5(7%) thought the 3 months’ time, which was initially allowed to complete the course was too short, and 3(4%) would prefer more topics for medical physicists and radiation technologists. Mean completion time was 61 +/-36 days. Before and after the course, 29(38%) and 66(87%) exceeded the 60% passing threshold of the quiz result, respectively (p<0.001). 69(91%) of the students improved their knowledge test score after the course. Pre- and post-course scores at the quiz were 56% +/-11% and 76% +/-14% (p<0.001), respectively. Domain-specific results are shown in Figure 1. Mean absolute and relative overall improvement were 20% +/-16% and 29% +/-24%, respectively. The length and volume of participants’ clinical experience, and the time needed to complete the course had no statistically significant impact on the post-course quiz scores. Following the course, 74(97%) students were motivated to participate in EMBRACE study on CT guided adaptive brachytherapy. The total cost of the online platform and the course was 1.200 Euro and was covered by donation. Results: