ReCAP: Impact of Multidisciplinary Care on Processes of Cancer Care: A Multi-Institutional Study [CARE DELIVERY]

QUESTION ASKED: What is the relationship between the level of implementation of multidisciplinary care (MDC) and various processes of cancer care (eg, time to treatment receipt, evaluation for enrollment onto a clinical trial) among community cancer centers serving patients diagnosed with colon, rectal, or lung cancer? There is limited generalizable evidence on this topic. It is important to answer this question using data that can generalize across cancer patients, the majority of whom receive treatment in a community cancer center. SUMMARY ANSWER: Focusing on the time to receipt of cancer-directed treatment as one key process of cancer care in this patient population, we found that the answer to our question depended on the MDC assessment area and tumor site (Table 1). Among patients with colon cancer, higher MDC levels of physician engagement (ie, a higher level of physician engagement at the institutional level) were associated with a shorter time to treatment receipt, whereas higher MDC levels of case planning were associated with a longer time to treatment receipt. Among patients with rectal cancer, higher MDC levels of physician engagement were associated with a shorter time to cancer-directed treatment receipt, whereas higher MDC levels of evaluation for enrollment onto clinical trials were associated with a longer time to treatment receipt. Among patients with lung cancer, there was no association between the MDC areas of assessment and the time to cancer-directed t...
Source: Journal of Oncology Practice - Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Tags: Population and Observational Studies, Epidemiology, Quality of Care, Guidelines, Epidemiology CARE DELIVERY Source Type: research