The OECI A&D Board is proud to inform you that The Lancet Oncology has accepted our article '100 European consensus Quality Standards for Cancer Centres'. The article sets out the robust process by which OECI consulted many experts and arrived at a consensus of core quality standards (100 in number) which should become standard in European cancer centres to achieve high quality care, research and education.

When working on the revision of the standards in 2019, the OECI A&D Board decided to consider changing the indicator for the Percentage of patients included in clinical trials. This was based on remarks made during the session during the Oncology Days in June 2019 in Bari, indicating that the definition did not take into account some developments related to biomarker-driven studies. However, after evaluating the first preliminary designations, the OECI A&D Board has concluded that the new definition for Manual 3.

As our centres were dealing with the COVID-19 situation, OECI decided in March to postpone all planned site visits until Autumn 2020. In the past weeks the OECI A&D Board has investigated alternatives to start up the A&D Programme, which protect health professionals, patients and the OECI auditors and co-ordinators. .

In September 2020 the OECI A&D Programme will continue with hybrid virtual peer reviews.

The following centres have been awarded OECI Accreditation & Designation Certificates between September 2019 and March 2020).  We offer our congratulations to each of them for this achievement.

New accreditations

- TAYS Cancer Centre, Tampere (Finland) – OECI Cancer Centre

-  TYKS Cancer Centre, Turku (Finland) – OECI Cancer Centre

- Trinity St.

Because of the Covid-19 situation in Europe the OECI Oncology Days will be postponed and will provisionally be taking place on 16-18 June 2021. As a result, the Scientific Conference on Quality Assurance in Cancer Care, which will be organised under the auspices of the OECI A&D Programme, will take place on 17 June 2021.

The OECI Board has officially approved the new set of standards and the final versions of the standards are published (see attachments). The questionnaires are accessible in the web-based e-tool and will be made available for centres following the process of the A&D programme. The OECI A&D Management Unit, in close co-operation with the OECI Liaison office, is currently working on finalising the manual with the procedures and background information on the programme.

OECI has revised the set of standards for the OECI Accreditation & Designation Programme, following a rigorous evidence-led process, and this has resulted in what we believe are the world's leading quality standards for cancer centres. As from 1^st October 2019 OECI offers centres the possibility to apply for the Programme using the new Standards (Manual 3.0 revision 2019), although applications using Manual 2.

During the OECI General Assembly on the 21^st of June the OECI members have agreed to change the fee to participate in the OECI A&D programme. The change of fee is applicable for all applications from the 1^st of January 2020. The new fee will be € 45.000.