title: Challenges of radiation oncology in Spain today.
abstract: The increasing cost of health care delivery, coupled with reduced investments and budget cuts in European health care systems, has had a severe negative impact on health care delivery in Spain. This reduction in spending has had particularly negative effects on specialties that are heavily reliant on large capital investments to purchase the latest technologies needed to deliver optimal radiotherapy treatments. The Spanish Society of Radiation Oncology has been proactively working to mitigate the negative impact of budget cuts in Spain. In this paper, the authors describe a variety of solutions and proposals to overcome these challenges.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, Catalan Institute of Oncology (ICO), University of Barcelona (UB), Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Ferran
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Guedea
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, Ramon y Cajal University Hospital Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Alfredo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ramos
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, Las Palmas Dr Negrín University Hospital University of Las Palmas, Spain.
authors.forename: Pedro
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lara
keywords: Budgets; Radiation Oncology Management; Spain; Technology