Radiation oncologists daily face the challenges of providing “high-value” therapy. Our treatment decisions require us to weigh complex clinical factors, including the clinical benefits and toxicities of therapy. We are also increasingly called upon by policymakers and payers to demonstrate that the therapy we deliver is high quality and cost effective. Our field is in critical need of innovative research that addresses these challenges, builds a robust evidence base to support the value of radiation treatments, and ultimately improves cancer outcomes while responding to the burden of growing cancer care costs.
The Radiation Oncology Institute (ROI) selected the “Value of Radiation Therapy” as the theme for its first-ever Publication Awards, in partnership with Advances in Radiation Oncology, to encourage such research. The ROI is seeking manuscripts of about 3,500 words in length on research addressing the comparative effectiveness, complication profile, cost and cost-effectiveness of radiation treatments. These studies should help provide patients and practitioners knowledge about the effectiveness of interventions within radiation oncology for specific clinical situations and/or patient populations.
The ROI will honor the top ten manuscripts in a special themed issue of Advances in September 2017. One article will receive the ROI Outstanding Article Award accompanied by a $5,000 research grant to support further research that builds upon authors’ work published in the themed issue. ROI will also recognize the author who has the highest altmetric score as of October 31, 2017, with a $500 mini-grant. ROI will pay the open access article processing fee – a value of up to $2,000 – for the top ten manuscripts.
Article submissions to be considered for the ROI Publication Awards are due by Wednesday, March 15, 2017. For more information, visit www.roinstitute.org/valueofrtawards.
Dr. Smith is a member of the ROI Research Committee for the purpose of advancing the quality, effectiveness and study of radiation oncology care.