Research Course in Radiation Oncology: How to Develop Research/Validation Programmes when Implementing New Technology? Edition 1: MRI Linac - PDF version

3- 6 November 2019, Madrid, Spain 

Course directors: 
Eric Lartigau, Radiation Oncologist and Director-General, Centre Oscar Lambret, Lille, France 
Felipe Calvo, Head of Radiation Oncology, Navarra University Clinic, Madrid, Spain 

­­­Could you please briefly introduce yourself? 

I am Paul Jeene, a radiation oncologist from The Netherlands.  My clinical expertise lies in treatment of gastrointestinal cancer, stereotactic radiotherapy and palliative care. My main research topics are oesophageal cancer and palliative care. Currently I am finishing my PhD on oesophageal cancer. 

I work at Radiotherapiegroep, a non-academic radiation oncology centre with multiple treatment locations in The Netherlands. Besides providing optimal patient care, we strive to be an early adopter of innovative technology and have recently acquired a MR linear accelerator (Linac).  

Why did you choose to attend this course?  

We will install a MR Linac next year, so I was keen to learn from others who have experience in this field. As we are a non-academic centre, our main focus is on making this new technology available to as many patients as possible. I hoped to learn how to incorporate research into a setting such as ours, and was not disappointed.  

What aspects of the course were the most interesting and why? 

The most interesting part of the course was the extensive interaction with both faculty and other attendees. It was good to learn from experienced staff how they approached the introduction of this technology. Just as interesting were the contributions from all attendees: on the one hand because I learned that we were all encountering the same issues, and on the other hand to benefit when they raised relevant questions that would never have crossed my mind.     

Did the course activities improve your knowledge and skills in the relevant subject? 

The course taught me how to systematically develop different stages of implementation using the R-IDEAL framework. This will help greatly in the successful and safe introduction of the MR Linac to our clinic.  

Did the course meet your expectations? If so, how? 

The course lived up to my expectations in terms of knowledge. However, it exceeded my expectations when it came to the interaction with fellow participants, which was both fun and inspiring.  

List three important ‘takeaways’ following the course

• The key factor in ensuring that the introduction of a MR Linac (or any new technology) is a success is having a good team.  
• The R-IDEAL framework is a helpful tool to design studies in implementing new technology. 
• “A MR Linac is not a plug & play machine”: so said Carsten Brink, medical physicist from Odense, Denmark, and a member of the course faculty. 

How would you encourage someone who has never been to an ESTRO Course to join this course next year/ in two years?   

If you are implementing major new technology in your clinic, this course will definitely give you valuable new perspectives.  

Paul Jeene 
Radiation ncologist
Radiotherapiegroep
Deventer & Arnhem, The Netherlands
p.jeene@radiotherapiegroep.nl