Yolande Lievens MD, PhD

Yolande Lievens, MD, Ph.D., is the current chair of the radiation oncology department of the Ghent University Hospital in Ghent, Belgium, and associate professor at Ghent University. She graduated from the Catholic University in Leuven, where she acquired her degrees in Medicine, Radiation Oncology, and Hospital and Health Care Management, and completed her Ph.D. in cost accounting and economic evaluation of
radiotherapy.
Her clinical focus lies on radiation therapy for thoracic malignancies, with additional interest in the role of radiotherapy in hematology and breast cancer. Apart from the clinics, she has always been closely involved in the organizational aspects of radiotherapy, in the position of radiotherapy within multidisciplinary oncology, and in the financial and health economic aspects of cancer care. Finally, she is interested in quality issues in radiation oncology, not only in terms of quality assurance but also regarding the impact of radiation treatments on quality of life.
She is the past president of ESTRO and deputy chair of the Belgian College for Physicians in Radiation Oncology.
She is (co-)steering the Health Economics in Radiation Oncology (ESTRO-HERO), the Global Impact of Radiotherapy in Oncology (ESTRO-GIRO), and the E2-RADIATE (EORTC-ESTRO Infrastructure for Radiotherapy in Europe) projects.
She is convinced that an optimal combination of clinical, translational, and health services research is key to the future of radiation oncology and to advance the outcome of cancer patients, by sustaining innovation in and access to radiotherapy in a multidisciplinary oncology environment.