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Review
. 2018 Jan 19:11:49-61.
doi: 10.2147/JMDH.S117945. eCollection 2018.

Successful strategies in implementing a multidisciplinary team working in the care of patients with cancer: an overview and synthesis of the available literature

Tayana Soukup  1 , Benjamin W Lamb  2 , Sonal Arora  3 , Ara Darzi  3 , Nick Sevdalis  1 , James Sa Green  4   5
Affiliations
Review

Successful strategies in implementing a multidisciplinary team working in the care of patients with cancer: an overview and synthesis of the available literature

Tayana Soukup et al. J Multidiscip Healthc. .

Erratum in

Abstract

In many health care systems globally, cancer care is driven by multidisciplinary cancer teams (MDTs). A large number of studies in the past few years and across different literature have been performed to better understand how these teams work and how they manage patient care. The aim of our literature review is to synthesize current scientific and clinical understanding on cancer MDTs and their organization; this, in turn, should provide an up-to-date summary of the current knowledge that those planning or leading cancer services can use as a guide for service implementation or improvement. We describe the characteristics of an effective MDT and factors that influence how these teams work. A range of factors pertaining to teamwork, availability of patient information, leadership, team and meeting management, and workload can affect how well MDTs are implemented within patient care. We also review how to assess and improve these teams. We present a range of instruments designed to be used with cancer MDTs - including observational tools, self-assessments, and checklists. We conclude with a practical outline of what appears to be the best practices to implement (Dos) and practices to avoid (Don'ts) when setting up MDT-driven cancer care.

Keywords: MDM; cancer MDT; cancer meeting; patients with cancer.

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Conflict of interest statement

Disclosure Nick Sevdalis is the Director of London Safety and Training Solutions Ltd, which provides patient safety and quality improvement skills training and advice on a consultancy basis to hospitals and training programs. James Green is a Director of Green Cross Medical Ltd that developed MDT FIT for use by National Health Service Cancer Teams in the UK. The authors report no other conflicts of interest in this work.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
A systems model approach to improve the delivery of cancer care representing the cancer pathway with the MDM embedded within it, and various inputs and outputs that affect the whole of the pathway, along with the factors that can impact on the inputs (in the arrows). Abbreviations: Chemo, chemotherapy; rad, radiotherapy; MDM, multidisciplinary team meeting.
Figure 2
Figure 2
A systems approach to describe and evaluate the functioning of an MDM. Reprinted from Surgical Oncology. 2011;20(3):163–168. Lamb BW, Green JSA, Vincent C, Sevdalis N. Decision making in surgical oncology with permission from Elsevier. Abbreviations: GP, General Practitioner; MDM, multidisciplinary team meeting; MDT,multidisciplinary team.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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