Veterans Affairs Radiation Oncology Quality Surveillance Program and American Society for Radiation Oncology Quality Measures Initiative

INTRODUCTION: Ensuring high quality, evidence-based radiation therapy for patients is of the upmost importance. As a part of the largest integrated health system in America, the Department of Veterans Affairs National Radiation Oncology Program (VA-NROP) established a quality surveillance initiative to address the challenge and necessity of providing the highest quality of care for veterans treated for cancer. METHODS: As part of this initiative, the VA-NROP contracted with the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) to commission five Blue-Ribbon Panels for lung, prostate, rectal, breast, and head & neck cancers experts. This group worked collaboratively with the VA-NROP to develop consensus quality measures. In addition to the site-specific measures, an additional Blue-Ribbon Panel comprised of the chairs and other members of the disease sites was formed to create 18 harmonized quality measures for all five sites (13 quality, 4 surveillance, and 1 aspirational). CONCLUSION: The VA-NROP and ASTRO collaboration have created quality measures spanning five disease sites to help improve patient outcomes. These will be used for the ongoing quality surveillance of veterans receiving radiation therapy through the VA and its community partners. ETHICS BOARD APPROVAL: N/A - No human subjects were required