In 2006, the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) defined the delivery of multimodality treatment by a multidisciplinary team of appropriately skilled health professionals as an essential component of quality cancer care. Subsequent research shows that Multidisciplinary Conferences are associated with improved survival in breast, head and neck, ovarian and colorectal cancers. Despite these advantages, health care systems struggle to implement and sustain Multidisciplinary Conferences due to the heavy burden imposed by the required work processes.
To understand the quality impacts of a multidisciplinary cancer care approach, we collected metrics including cancer characteristics, care team utilization metrics, average attendance, quality metrics collected for accreditation, and clinical trials from 46,000 patient cases and 9,000 care providers.
Through this work, we found that:
- An average of 18 people attended each conference, which included representation from Medical Oncology, Radiation Oncology, Surgery, Pathology, and Radiology
- Process improvements delivered by the implementation of a multidisciplinary cancer care platform resulted in a 65 to 90 percent drop in the time spent for case preparation
Quality outcomes were measured by the number of cases discussed per session, patient access to a multidisciplinary discussion, and physician engagement. From baseline and across providers, we measured:
- A 33 percent increase in the number of cases discussed per session
- A 50 percent increase in patient access, and
- A 50 percent increase in engagement per month
Looking at a single system, we measured:
- An average of 5 referrals per 10 cases
- An increase of approximately 3,000 additional analytic cases above baseline over the evaluation period, and
- An increase of $1.5M in net revenue over the evaluation period
Complete our quick form to download and read the full research abstract, which was presented at the 2021 ASCO Quality Symposium.
