Fellowship Details

Location

The Cancer Center is located in the medical center of the city of San Antonio which is north of the city center. San Antonio is a major city in south-central Texas with a rich colonial heritage and is the seventh most populous city in the USA. The Alamo, an 18th-century Spanish mission preserved as a museum, marks an infamous 1836 battle for Texan independence from Mexico. Following the San Antonio River, the miles-long River Walk is a landmark pedestrian promenade lined with cafes and shops. HemisFair Park’s 750-ft. Tower of the Americas overlooks the city.

Stavros Niarchos Foundation

The Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) is one of the world’s leading private international philanthropic organizations, making grants in the areas of arts and culture, education, health and sports, and social welfare. SNF funds organizations and projects that are expected to achieve a broad, lasting and positive impact for society at large, and exhibit strong leadership and sound management. SNF also actively seeks to support projects that facilitate the formation of public-private partnerships as an effective means for serving public welfare.  Since 1996, SNF has committed more than $2.4 billion, through almost 4,000 grants to nonprofit organizations in 120 nations around the world—including a new SNF initiative to expand its support of the health sector in Greece with a series of infrastructure and education projects, expected to exceed $240 million.

The course is implemented as part of the SNF Radiotherapy Program, a large-scale grant in Greece, supported exclusively by the SNF, totaling €20 million, pertaining to the replacement of 10 obsolete linear accelerators in public hospitals around the country. The grant is also supporting the free maintenance of each linear accelerator for two years, plus training programs for hospital personnel to ensure optimal operation of the radiotherapy equipment.

Overview

The three week observership at the department of radiation oncology is designed to allow the visiting clinician to get a comprehensive understanding of our clinical practice including the roles of each team member in the patient care and the tools that we use to efficiently manage workflow and patient treatments.

Learning Objectives

■ Understand the workflow in a modern department that utilizes only electronic medical records

■ Understand the treatment planning process and patient selection criteria for 3D and IMRT

■ Understand the criteria used for target and normal tissue segmentation as well as plan evaluation

■ Understand the elements of a comprehensive QA and QC program including patient management and peer review process

The learning objectives will be met by observing new patient consultations, on treatment visits, and patient follow ups. Emphasis will be given to patient simulation and strategies used therein, followed by treatment planning and more specifically structure segmentation, treatment technique selection and plan evaluation. Quality Assurance is an integral component of treatment and patient safety. The attendees will participate in both patient specific pre-treatment QA as well as routine QC tests performed on the treatment units. Attendees will be asked to attend the new patient conferences where all the new patient plans are presented and discussed, as well as the didactic lectures offered by the faculty and the anatomy specific tumor boards.

In the beginning of the three week session, the attendees will have a two day orientation where they will rotate through all the patient encounter stations in the department, namely the nursing, simulator, therapy, dosimetry, medical physics and physicians. This will create an opportunity to meet our faculty and staff, and to appreciate how all our team members work together to ensure the best possible care for our patients.

Target Audience

Preference will be given to junior clinicians (physicians and medical physicists) employed by the Greek radiotherapy departments that participate in the SNF radiotherapy program.