Objectives and aims of the Society

WHAT WE DO

The British Radiosurgery Society (BRS) was founded as a non-profit organisation in 2008. Our overwhelming aim is to ensure that the highest level of treatment is available and given to all patients in the United Kingdom whose conditions are helped by focused radiation of the brain or body. We promote the highest standards of clinical expertise and training in the field.

We are dedicated to develop and advance technical developments in stereotactic radiosurgery, research in the field of stereotactic radiosurgery and spread the knowledge and awareness amongst medical professionals, commissioners and patients.

Our Members

OR WHO MAY JOIN

Our organisation is open to all specialties. We intend to promote interaction between any practitioner in the field regardless of their background. The founding members include neurosurgeons, clinical oncologists, medical physicists, therapy radiographers and other professionals involved in the planning and delivery of stereotactic radiosurgery.

The Society is explicitly open to users of any technology. It is well known to most of those who perform this sort of treatment that it has not been very easy to establish a dialogue between neurosurgeons and radiotherapists, LINAC users and Gamma Knife users. This was not a particularly severe problem during the last two decades when, despite its obvious importance for the individual patients, radiosurgery was only a minor issue as far as health care in the United Kingdom is concerned.

However, there has been a worldwide development of new technology, with linear accelerator-based systems becoming more sophisticated and thus more suited for stereotactic radiosurgery. The introduction of Cyberknife had a great impact in publicising the importance of focused radiation in the management of a wide range of pathologies. The Gamma Knife has also undergone major renewal and enables robotic treatment delivery with extremely high precision with ease and in large numbers.

In parallel with the technological improvements there has been an increasingly wider acceptance of this technology both amongst patients and those who commissioned the service on their behalf. The indications have broadened over the years and an increasing amount of material has been published in the medical literature supporting the field.

The ISRS has been a great success worldwide. It allowed "cross fertilisation" between different specialties and disseminate the experience of older units to those who were newer in the field. We hope that this, very similar, organisation within the United Kingdom will achieve the same.