Certification

The certification programme was developed to improve cancer care starting in Germany and now expanding to all member states of Europe. It offers patients a treatment that is based on high quality standards at every stage of their disease.

Certified cancer centres form the basis of this approach: The centres are requested to demonstrate annually that they meet the technical and medical requirements for the treatment of a specific tumour entity. Quality requirements are summarised in questionnaires (Catalogues of Requirements) and data sheets with quality indicators, which are developed in tumour-specific interdisciplinary committees and are regularly updated. Medical guidelines (“S3-guidelines”) are the foundation for defining these quality standards.

The quality of the centres is recorded and published annually in tumour-specific benchmarking reports. In addition, every centre can commission an individualised annual report, which shows its own results in comparison to other certified centres. With this benchmarking approach, centres can constantly improve their own quality.

The entire certification system and thus the audits are organised by the independent certification institute OnkoZert, which specialised in medical certification.

As from summer 2016, for cancer centres outside Germany it will be possible to be certified as an “European Cancer Centre”. Read more here.

A presentation on certification and healthcare structures in oncology will give you an overview of the certification system.