Quality : The message to our patients is loud and clear : offering and providing top quality at a fair price

Continuous quality improvement (CQI) is necessary in maintaining and improving the quality of medical care delivered. However, quality assurance (QA) in the past was performed superficially to meet requirements of Commissions on Accreditation of Health Care Organizations and other regulatory agencies.
ESAS may not be not known, but certainly still is in an early developing stage. Statistics from these small numbers are hardly indicative. Much more promotion is needed to help ESAS reach a state for useful comparison. Since ESAS offers a special section for postgraduate students too, teaching institutions should participate and make ESAS a standard for future orthodontists.
Within this survey we noticed that not all parts of the program are registered and that the indeces PAR, IOTN, ICON are not very popular amongst the registered users. On the other hand we can state that allmost all countries (n=20) participate in the program, so it is not not known. Some countries are not represented in the statistics (Poland, Switserland, ...). Perhaps more reports should be made for further stimulation.
The quality and the improvement of quality however is not improved by taking part to a quality measurement system. It only indicates the estimated position amongst peers.
One of the tasks of EFOSA in the European orthodontic field remains the promotion of the quality of care.