ESTRO Annual Report 2018

Editorial 2018 annual report

This ESTRO Annual Report highlights the Society’s standout achievements in 2018. We hope you enjoy reading it. In this editorial, we turn the spotlight onto a few of these accomplishments. In 2018 the Society’s leadership led a retreat in Mechelen, Belgium, to develop the new ESTRO Vision and strategy, which will guide us through to 2030, when the first Vision comes to an end in 2020. The ESTRO Vision 2030 – “Radiation oncology. Optimal health for all, together” – will be published in Radiotherapy & Oncology this year in July. In this report we highlight the main strategic points in the new Vision. The ESTRO membership is the heart of our Society. In terms of numbers, we can now boast 7,656 radiation oncology professional members from across the world. The ever-increasing membership is a testament to the much sought- after portfolio of activities that we offer. This portfolio includes our long track-record of organising conferences, disseminating the latest findings and providing a platform for networking. In 2018, our annual congress, ESTRO 37 was held in Barcelona, Spain, and yet again saw a steady increase in participation at both individual and industry level. Also in 2018, ESTRO and its Asian partners held the first conference of its kind: the ‘ESTRO meets Asia’ congress, a collaborative effort to bring together radiation oncologists in Europe and Asia. We held a number of other collaborative meetings in Europe with other oncology societies on topical / organ-based and non- organ-basedmultidisciplinary subjects. All these meetings underscore the interdisciplinary and

multidisciplinary approaches that hold the key to improving cancer patient care. Closer tohome, our physicists andbrachytherapists held successful workshops. This is another platform that ESTRO continues to encourage, facilitating scientific and professional networking opportunities within ESTRO’s sub-specialties. The Society’s flagship journal, Radiotherapy & Oncology, and the three open-access journals – Clinical and Translational Radiation Oncology (ctRO), Physics and Imaging for Radiation Oncology (phiRO), and Technical Innovations and Patient Support in Radiation Oncology (tipsRO) – all saw an increase in online usage in 2018. You can read more about them and other ESTRO publications in this annual report. The ESTRO School’s catalogue of courses is continuously improved and developed to ensure the quality of its of courses, which range from face- to-face courses at both basic and advanced levels, to online courses, depending on professional development needs. In 2018, ESTRO offered 33 courses, 27 in Europe and six outside. The impressive portfolio is a direct response to the needs of members and trends in technology. In 2018, the collaboration between ESTRO, the Canadian Association of Radiation Oncology (CARO) and the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Radiologists (RANZCR) culminated in the creation of a new blended- learning course on leadership, designed to fill a gap in radiation oncology training that has become increasingly apparent over recent years. Through its wide range of public affairs activities, ESTRO is nowwell established in promoting the

4

editorial