Education＆ScienceEducational Article

Comment by Mark Lavercombe: Disparities in lung cancer care are prevalent throughout the world, and a broad knowledge of local epidemiologic patterns and specific at-risk groups is important to achieve best outcomes. Further, practice guidelines for screening and management must be informed by a knowledge of local factors that might affect care delivery. Part of any optimisation process includes knowing what the goal is and how to measure its achievement, and the authors of this paper have – after a modified electronic Delphi consensus process – defined a series of clinical quality indicators for the care of thoracic cancers in Australasia. The result is a broad list of quality indicators that can be used for the evaluation of local services and as a benchmark for care planning and delivery.