Criteria for establishing a centre of excellence in oncology: a scoping review

Centres of Excellence (CoEs) are assumed to indicate centres that are leading in healthcare, research, and innovation. However, there is no consensus on the criteria or frameworks for defining CoEs. This review aims to identify which criteria have been mentioned in literature for CoEs in oncology, and what the evidence is for these criteria.

A scoping review was conducted in PubMed, Web of Science, and EMBASE, following PRISMA guidelines. Data extraction categorised findings into four pillars: medical care, organisation/management, research, and education.

A total of 5717 records were retrieved, of which 20 papers were included in the review. CoE features in Medical care included: multidisciplinary team participation (10/20), specialised treatments (8/20), ICT interoperability (6/20), innovation (5/20), patient-centred care (5/20), and state-of-the-art equipment (3/20). For Organisation/Management notable features were strong HR policies for career development (4/20), high-performance teams (4/20), and frameworks promoting excellence (3/20). For Research we found: focused on international collaboration (5/20), clinical trials (4/20), and high-quality translational research (3/20). Education included residency and fellowship programs (7/20), comprehensive training programs (5/20), and continuous education (3/20). These findings emphasise the comprehensive approach necessary for achieving excellence in oncology care, although no papers were found where these criteria were correlated with outcome.

We found that most studies mentioned integrated care, and specific characteristics of organisation & operational management, research, and education when defining CoE in oncology, but these criteria have not been validated with outcome.