Radiation Oncology in Colombia: An Opportunity for Improvement in the Postconflict Era

Targeting Education as a Barrier to Implement Hypofractionation: Results of a Country-Wide Training Program

“…The noneducational barriers reported by our participants correlate with those reported in the aforementioned global hypofractionation survey; however, among our participants, reimbursement was listed as a barrier by only 1% of the participants and only for 2 of our selected clinical scenarios, which is much lower than in the global report average. 9 This difference from the international survey might be related to Colombia's current national bundled payment system for radiation services, 10 which may be distinctive among Latin American countries. In choosing Colombia to pilot this program, we considered a bundled payment system ideal for this kind of work, as it reduces financial disincentives as a barrier against hypofractionation and allows a cleaner analysis of nonfinancial barriers regarding its implementation.…”

“…Participants joined from 46 centers of 49 radiation oncology centers in the country at the time enrollment in the curriculum. 10 Among the 67 physicians, 38 (57%) responded to both surveys. All 38 respondents were in practice, representing 30.6% of the current workforce of radiation oncologists in the country.…”

“…The nonprofit organization, Rayos Contra Cancer, developed a hypofractionation e-learning curriculum to pilot in Colombia, a country in South America (population 50 million), with a bundled payment system based on radiation therapy techniques (ie, the same payment amount regardless of the disease site or the number of treatment fractions). 10 The program's leadership felt this would eliminate the influence of perverse financial incentives toward implementing hypofractionation, which might otherwise confound the effect of medical education on practice. Rayos Contra Cancer opened the program free of charge to radiation oncologists, medical physicists, and radiation oncology and medical physics residents, with no restrictions on the type of clinical practice, including those unemployed.…”

Hypofractionation as a solution to radiotherapy access in latin america: expert perspective

“…In LA, there are geographical disparities between the number of machines available in larger cities versus rural areas, resulting in unequal RT access in general and often leaving rural areas underserved [ 53 ].…”

Radiation Oncology Residency Training in Latin America: A Call to Attention

“…With a complex labor market, coordinating the growth of radiotherapy centers in synchrony with the number of radiation oncology trainees has proved a difficult task. [13][14][15] In addition to the focus on numbers, having welltrained and prepared radiation oncologists is essential to ensure universal access, efficacy, quality, and safety of radiation therapy in Latin America. As written in the International Basic Safety Standards published by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), adequate training and education for radiation oncologists is both a basic medical and social need.…”