10+ years of impact
The Canadian Partnership for Quality Radiotherapy
By standardizing practices for radiotherapy planning and delivery and providing a means for knowledge to be shared among provinces and cancer centres, the Canadian Partnership for Quality Radiotherapy is an excellent example of how professionals with distinct areas of expertise and interdependent roles are collaborating to improve healthcare delivery for those relying on radiotherapy as part of their cancer treatment. Established in 2010, its contributions include:
- A suite of more than 20 nationally validated, evidence-based guidelines that successfully harmonize safe radiotherapy delivery across Canada:
- The Quality Assurance Guidelines for Canadian Radiation Treatment Programs is used by almost every radiotherapy program as a benchmark in program quality improvement.
- 16 technical quality control guidelines that have been adapted for use by cancer centres in at least six other countries around the world.
- Three patient-oriented guidance documents that help radiotherapy programs engage patients and family members in their care.
- Improving the use of patient reported outcomes (PRO) to measure the impact of specific treatment plans and determine the optical treatment protocols for patients to benefit from high quality care.
- A suite of self-audit tools that enable cancer centres to measure compliance with CPQR guidelines and use real-time results to inform program improvements.
- In partnership with CIHI, the creation of the National System for Incident Reporting – Radiation Treatment (NSIR-RT) that is used by 77% of all radiotherapy centres in Canada to capture granular data and share learnings.
- Assessing the use of radiotherapy across Canada to help identify inequities in access.
- The development of an online incident investigation and learning course that is available at no cost to help learners effectively investigate local incidents.
Since 2021, CPQR has been a steering committee of CAPCA, where it is advancing our work on Radiotherapy Quality and Access.
CPQR information and resources
Learn about CPQR’s contributions and access radiotherapy-related guidance documents and resources.
“Thanks to CPQR’s early achievements, there is now a shared pan-Canadian approach to the safe and effective planning and delivery of radiotherapy”.
Eshwar Kumar, Co-CEO, New Brunswick Cancer Network; Co-Chair, National System for Incident Reporting – Radiation Treatment (NSIR-RT) Advisory Committee
