The JRC, the European Commission’s in-house science service, was assigned in December 2012 with the tasks of (i) developing a new version of the European guidelines for breast cancer screening and diagnosis (in the following mentioned as 'the new European Guidelines') and of (ii) developing a voluntary European Quality Assurance scheme for breast cancer services based on the European legislative framework on accreditation (defined in Regulation (EC) No 765/2008) (in the following mentioned as European QA scheme). Those tasks, among others, are part of the European Commission Initiative on Breast Cancer (ECIBC).
The European QA Scheme has the goal to ensure the implementation of evidence-based practices throughout the entire breast cancer pathway, including screening and diagnosis. Having the objective to be a pan-European programme across borders, the European Regulation on Accreditation is the legal frame that would allow a consistent and publicly controlled development and implementation of the European QA Scheme in the different Member States and associated countries, and a harmonised approach to quality assurance in breast cancer care.
Therefore, both with the scope of building up the knowledge base for the ECIBC, and in view of designing a flexible QA scheme adaptable to different organisational settings, a search of external quality assessment schemes for breast cancer care already in place in Europe was done, through different searches that included: MEDLINE, website of relevant scientific societies, and EC Reports,. Only schemes fully implemented, with evidence of current activity, with at least one centre in Europe currently holding the certificate awarded by that organisation and foreseeing a third-party audit / on-site survey were considered. A general analysis of schemes not including breast cancer specific requirements, but including general organisational recommendations impacting on the breast cancer pathways was done. For breast cancer specific schemes, on the other hand, information was collected and reported in two ways: (i) descriptive and (ii) comparative by applying three objective references: one on the accreditation-healthcare side, one on the accreditation-ISO side and the last one with a hospital management profile. For this analysis, however, only schemes that had information available in English, French and Spanish were considered.
DEANDREA Silvia;
LERDA Donata;
LOPEZ ALCALDE Jesus;
NEAMTIU Luciana;
SAZ PARKINSON Zuleika Esther;
ULUTURK Asli;
2015-09-11
Publications Office of the European Union
JRC96105
978-92-79-50576-8 (print),
978-92-79-50575-1,
1018-5593 (print),
1831-9424 (online),
EUR 27413,
OP LF-NA-27413-EN-C (print),
OP LF-NA-27413-EN-N (online),
https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC96105,
10.2788/446515 (print),
10.2788/58686 (online),
