ESO in the next 5 years


ESO’s mission and values remain the same, however with a slight change in emphasis: not only to reduce the amount of deaths, but to also improve quality of life, not only to “learn” also but to “take care of” patients, globally.
Another factor to thank ESO for is that in the last 10 years the number of oncology deaths has considerably been reduced. This has encouraged ESO to modify its original mission (“To reduce the number of cancer deaths due to late diagnosis or inadequate treatment”), in order to integrate and specify the concept of “Learning to care” within it’s motto.
ESO will however remain unchanged in its values which have characterised ESO since the beginning of its work. The most important value which distinguishes ESO from other similar institutions, is that of independence, in particular from industries (pharmaceutical and non pharmaceutical).
ESO is fortunate - which is a rarity in the world of doctor/science - to be able to choose its own means. This allows ESO to develop an exchange of oncology knowledge in disciplines which are less supported by other industrial sponsors, such as, surgery, or rare pathologies which are not as relevant to industries, such as infant/child tumours, and geographical areas with limited economic resources which do not have the same market interest, such as developing countries. Finally, the School has always promoted oncology knowledge in a multidisciplinary way (integrating surgery, medicine, radiotherapy) and in a multi-professional way (involving professions other than doctors, in particular nurses, laboratory technicians and psychologists) and with an increase in the establishment of patient voices organisations.


OBJECTIVES
The objectives for the next five years can be summed up in one sentence: focusing on making ESO a reference point as a top European organisation for oncology education. ESO’s mission is a response to the demand from western countries or developed countries where there is a constant increase in the request for education and oncology updates. These are the result of the progression in research into new therapies, technologies and new drugs. Meanwhile in developing countries there is an increase in the demand for oncology education deriving from the forecasted explosion of cancer. The fight against cancer is therefore becoming more and more global and the aim needs to be to extend the success which has been gained in the United States and Europe in controlling the disease and which has consequently decreased the number of deaths. ESO has faced the process of globalising the fight against cancer with diversity and speed - and in an active and resourceful way by: dedicating resources and energy, expanding it’s work in new cultural areas, new geographical areas and new professional figures, developing and upgrading editorial activities in print and electronically, as well as e-learning.
ESO is heading in the right direction and this is demonstrated by the results gained:

  • more that 10.000 CancerWorld readers
  • more that 1.600 daily visits to our website
  • more that 2.500 registered website users

As mentioned an important objective for the next five years is to reinforce ESO’s position as leader organisation, on an European scale, in the field of Education in Oncology.

In order to meet this objective it is necessary to intervene in four sectors:

 

The objective in the next few years is to maintain the educational instruments of the school (Inside Track Conferences, Masterclasses, Advanced Courses, Seminars and Symposia, Training Courses in Native Language and e-learning) favouring, however, an increase in quality and the educational influence with tests to evaluate learning. Programming must be done so as to way to allow students to follow a study plan which develops with time, and ESO must follow these developments with a tutoring system.

 

E-learning - or wbt, web based training – allows knowledge and experience to be transported quickly and cost-effectively, as well as improving access to information and monitoring all aspects of the learning process of students. Cancelling the barriers of space, time and social-economic limits, e-learning is the 3rd millennium’s answer to the problem of access to knowledge and continual learning. If used accurately, it allows a reduction in costs while maintaining quality.
ESO recognised the importance of this form of teaching early on. The School was the first to organise a conference on ‘Cancer on the Internet’- held in New York in 2003 and already offers multimedia learning material, on it’s website in particular a web cast, which is a series of lessons in 6 languages about psychological aspects in the treatment of cancer.
E-learning will partly substitute or complement classroom teaching, in particular in passing on simple information or technical messages.
The result will be a balanced educational system, which is cost-efficient and efficient.

 

ESO has successfully enlarged it’s geographical area of activity, concentrating in particular on 5 areas: the new countries in the European Union, ex Soviet Union, the Balkans, the Middle East. Considering the means available, ESO is unable to expand it’s didactic activities with onsite courses in different languages and therefore it needs to concentrate on European, Mediteranean and Balkan countries with low-medium incomes.
ESO would like to be present in other low-medium income countries but it must overcome contradictions between it’s aspirations to have a global presence and the limited means available. Therefore it will only be able to continually work with other organisations and groups by providing professional collaboration,, didactic material and fellowships, etc. Over the next few years ESO will have the task of finding new collaborations and developing existing ones.
As far as professional areas are concerned, ESO offers and will continue to offer education and support to all those who follow patients within the field of oncology, from doctors to nurses and patient representatives themselves.

 

Thanks to a precise definition of roles and to the opening of an office in Switzerland, the head office has been able to remarkably decrease it’s volume of work.
Over the next few years ESO aims to increase it’s work as an “agency” of oncology education, that is a cultural institute, competent in selecting study topics, identifying high level professors, but also able to closely follow each single student, in a way that allows them to actively intervene at any given moment with information and advice.