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Radiation Oncology
Volume 12 No 4 I September 2016 51
Dr Dion Forstner
I feel privileged to have been elected to
serve the Faculty of Radiation Oncology
as the Dean for another two-year term
from January 2017 to December 2018. I
appreciate the confidence and trust from
the College Board and Faculty Council,
and would like to take this opportunity
to thank all Council members, College
staff, and my wonderful colleagues at
Liverpool Hospital for their hard work
and support during my current term.
We have made a great deal of progress
in the last two years towards achieving
the strategic priorities of the Faculty, in
particular in the area of advocacy and
government engagement. We have
established a sound and collaborative
relationship with the Department
of Health which is extremely helpful
during this critical time when both the
Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) and
the Radiation Oncology Health Program
Grants (ROHPG) are being reviewed.
While we celebrate our achievements,
we also acknowledge various issues
and challenges ahead, e.g. ongoing
work around the MBS/ROHPG reviews,
ongoing workforce issues, progressing
the radiation oncology practice
standards, how to best support the
Faculty standing committees and
special interest groups and ultimately
strengthening the voice of radiation
oncology within the health sector both
in Australia and New Zealand. The
Faculty Council and I are committed to
addressing these issues, continuously
improving the radiation oncology sector
and ensuring that we identify new
challenges and opportunities early.
We welcome suggestions and ideas from
all radiation oncology members, and I
encourage all of you to get involved in
College activities, which is guaranteed to
be a rewarding experience.
Profile and Presence of Radiation
Oncology
The Targeting Cancer campaign
continues to make progress in various
areas, including GP education, media/
social media presence, website
development, etc.
It is very exciting that the Targeting
Cancer website recently won the Best in
Class Award in the healthcare category
of the Interactive Media Awards, as well
as a gold medal in the 2016 Sydney
Design Awards. Please see the article on
page 23 for more details.
I congratulate the Targeting Cancer team
on this outstanding achievement and
encourage all members to participate in
Targeting Cancer activities.
Please contact if
you are interested in getting involved, to
help raise the profile of our profession,
and ultimately increase the utilisation
rate of radiation therapy.
Funding of Radiation Therapy
The review of the radiation oncology
items within the MBS is well underway.
The first activity of the Oncology Clinical
Committee (OCC) was to look at
obsolete items within the schedule. The
Faculty’s MBS Review Working Group
consulted with heads of departments on
the list of items identified as potentially
obsolete and provided advice to the
nominees on the OCC: Dr Liz Kenny, Prof
Michael Barton and A/Prof Chris Milross.
The radiation oncology section of the
MBS is outdated and does not reflect the
way we currently deliver treatment to our
patients. Through our working group,
the Faculty is providing advice to the
OCC nominees on various options for
redesigning the schedule to better suit
contemporary practice.
We continue to seek opportunities to
nominate Fellows to other committees
of the MBS Review that intersect with our
specialty. Prof Gill Duchesne has been
nominated to the Nuclear Medicine
Working Group which has been formed
under the Diagnostic Imaging Clinical
Committee.
Updated Faculty Guidelines for
Informed Consent with Informed
Financial Consent
In 2010, the Faculty published Guidelines
for Informed Consent, which represent
the Faculty’s view on the pivotal matter
of patient consent to receive radiation
treatment.
The Faculty Council believes it is
important for patients to understand the
costs associated with radiation oncology
services, and full disclosure of financial/
cost information should be provided in
writing to patients before they sign the
informed consent form.
The Faculty Council recently approved
updates to the guidelines for informed
consent, which now include a section on
A Message
from the Dean