BrachyAcademy at the World Congress of Brachytherapy-2024

Dr. Elena Dizendorf, BrachyAcademy Manager at Elekta, participated in the scientific program at the World Congress of Brachytherapy, held from July 10-13, 2024, in National Harbor, MD, USA.

Elena delivered an oral presentation titled “Education for Image-Guided Brachytherapy: The BrachyAcademy Experience,” where she provided an overview of live workshops conducted by BrachyAcademy aimed at increasing the adoption of Image-Guided Brachytherapy (IGBT) among radiation therapy professionals.

From 2008 to 2023, BrachyAcademy organized 117 live clinical workshops, covering various types of brachytherapy: gynecological – 53, prostate – 28, breast – 13, skin – 13, general training for residents – 4, bladder – 3, rectal – 2, head and neck – 1. Geographically, the workshops were distributed as follows: Europe – 68, North America – 30, Asia – 17, Africa – 1, Australia – 1. Industry-supported clinical workshops have played a key role in brachytherapy education for radiation therapy professionals globally. IGBT techniques, first introduced during BrachyAcademy workshops at Vienna Medical University in 2008, have since spread throughout Europe and North America, with growing adoption in Asia. Currently, BrachyAcademy is focused on promoting the use of brachytherapy, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, including regions in Africa and Latin America.