The Organization of Multidisciplinary Care Teams: Modeling Internal and External Influences on Cancer Care Quality

Overview

Journal J Natl Cancer Inst Monogr

Publisher Oxford University Press

Specialty Oncology

Date 2010 Apr 14

PMID 20386055

Citations 107

Authors

Mary L Fennell

Irene Prabhu Das

Steven Clauser

Nicholas Petrelli

Andrew Salner

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Quality cancer treatment depends upon careful coordination between multiple treatments and treatment providers, the exchange of technical information, and regular communication between all providers and physician disciplines involved in treatment. This article will examine a particular type of organizational structure purported to regularize and streamline the communication between multiple specialists and support services involved in cancer treatment: the multidisciplinary treatment care (MDC) team. We present a targeted review of what is known about various types of MDC team structures and their impact on the quality of treatment care, and we outline a conceptual model of the connections between team context, structure, process, and performance and their subsequent effects on cancer treatment care processes and patient outcomes. Finally, we will discuss future research directions to understand how MDC teams improve patient outcomes and how characteristics of team structure, culture, leadership, and context (organizational setting and local environment) contribute to optimal multidisciplinary cancer care.

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