- Email: [email protected]
Opening remarks
Copyright
r
0360.3016/84/$3.00 + .OO 19X4 Pergamon Pres Ltd.
??Opening Remarks
DR. S. PAUL EHRLICH Deputy
Director,
Pan American
On behalf of Dr. Carlyle Guerra de Macedo, the Director of the Pan American Health Organization, regional office of the World Health Organization, it is my pleasure to welcome you to the First International Symposium on Quality Assurance in Radiation Therapy: Clinical and Physical Aspects. This symposium could serve as a model for other branches of medicine, in that it has been possible to bring together the various professional, governmental, and international organizations involved in the practice of radiation therapy to attempt to establish the optimum, and the minimum, standards for quality assurance. The highest priority of member governments of the Pan American Health Organization and the World Health Organization is to provide health services to populations that are not currently receiving them. To emphasize this, WHO and PAHO have designated “Health for All by the Year 2000” as their chief global and regional goal. Because of the difficult financial situation that all countries, and consequently their health services are now experiencing and the expectations are that there
Accepted
for publication
23 November
Health
Organization
will be no significant improvement, at least in the next few years. How then can we assure that the efforts to improve equity in the coverage of health services will not result in the provision of ineffective health care? It would surely be a mockery of the noble goal of providing equal access to health care for all populations if the services did no good for the patients. The objective of this symposium is to review international experience in quality assurance in radiation therapy, and to develop concensus statements concerning optimal, and minimum, standards for a number of important areas. During this process there will be the opportunity to exchange opinions and to discuss and clarify ideas that will be presented by the outstanding faculty which has been assembled. At the end of the symposium, it is expected that a concensus will have been reached concerning the optimum quality assurance procedures that should be the goal of most radiation therapy services, as well as the absolutely essential requirements that must be observed in any radiation therapy service.
83. 3
r
0360.3016/84/$3.00 + .OO 19X4 Pergamon Pres Ltd.
??Opening Remarks
DR. S. PAUL EHRLICH Deputy
Director,
Pan American
On behalf of Dr. Carlyle Guerra de Macedo, the Director of the Pan American Health Organization, regional office of the World Health Organization, it is my pleasure to welcome you to the First International Symposium on Quality Assurance in Radiation Therapy: Clinical and Physical Aspects. This symposium could serve as a model for other branches of medicine, in that it has been possible to bring together the various professional, governmental, and international organizations involved in the practice of radiation therapy to attempt to establish the optimum, and the minimum, standards for quality assurance. The highest priority of member governments of the Pan American Health Organization and the World Health Organization is to provide health services to populations that are not currently receiving them. To emphasize this, WHO and PAHO have designated “Health for All by the Year 2000” as their chief global and regional goal. Because of the difficult financial situation that all countries, and consequently their health services are now experiencing and the expectations are that there
Accepted
for publication
23 November
Health
Organization
will be no significant improvement, at least in the next few years. How then can we assure that the efforts to improve equity in the coverage of health services will not result in the provision of ineffective health care? It would surely be a mockery of the noble goal of providing equal access to health care for all populations if the services did no good for the patients. The objective of this symposium is to review international experience in quality assurance in radiation therapy, and to develop concensus statements concerning optimal, and minimum, standards for a number of important areas. During this process there will be the opportunity to exchange opinions and to discuss and clarify ideas that will be presented by the outstanding faculty which has been assembled. At the end of the symposium, it is expected that a concensus will have been reached concerning the optimum quality assurance procedures that should be the goal of most radiation therapy services, as well as the absolutely essential requirements that must be observed in any radiation therapy service.
83. 3