From 17–19 May 2022 an international event was organised by the Institute of Oncology Ljubljana, National Institute of Public Health and EU-TOPIA-EAST project. Three Slovenian screening programmes ZORA, DORA and Svit and the cancer genetics clinic presented themselves to experts from Romania, Montenegro, Croatia and the Netherlands.
On the first day, a short introductory lecture about the importance and different elements of an organised population based screening programme and the presentation about the EU-TOPIA-EAST project was held, followed by a short presentation of screening programmes. All three screening programmes presented themselves in more detail during the three days. Participants also had the chance for site visits of the screening programmes.
The ZORA programme was the first to introduce itself more in depth. We presented the organisational structure of the programme, elements of organised screening and the results of our programme. Two lectures were dedicated to a detailed presentation of ZORA Registry, its information system renewal and different efforts in the ZORA programme to increase the participation of women and reduce the inequalities.
The next programme to present itself was the DORA programme with a presentation of breast cancer epidemiology in Slovenia, implementation of the programme and quality assurance in accordance with the European guidelines for quality assurance in breast cancer screening. We completed our first day of lectures with a presentation form the cancer genetics clinic.
On the second day of event, the site visits took place. Experts visited our central offices, where we presented our programmes in a more practical way and answered their questions regarding screening. After that, experts from all countries presented their experience with the implementation or with running a successful screening programme.
On the third day the Svit programme presented the epidemiology of colorectal cancer in Slovenia, European and Slovenian guidelines for quality assurance in colorectal cancer screening with a special focus on the communication strategy of the Svit programme.
We were very happy to have a chance to exchange our experience on the organization of screening programmes with experts from other screening programmes, both from Slovenia and abroad, and to answer questions from experts from guest countries and in this way provided assistance on their way to organised cancer screening. We also learned a lot.
We want to thank everyone who was a part of this special event! We organized the event on the initiative from guest countries, who approached us individually with a request for a study visit. We managed to organize one event for all of them. This proved to be a good choice, because we concluded our three day event with a promise that this gathering was not our last.
Participants of the 1st Open days of Slovenian Cancer Screening Programmes, Maj 2022
