Working as a multidisciplinary team

Multidisciplinary care is established as the optimal model of clinical treatment of patients with cancer. As cancer treatment becomes increasingly complex, it is obvious that no one individual can maintain knowledge and skills across all domains of care. This means that a collaborative approach is required to ensure that expertise is available to assist in decision-making and planning of treatment, which is evidence-based and focused on the needs of the individual patient, taking into account their social and family context. This chapter describes the benefits of treatment by a multidisciplinary team including a description of the characteristics of well-functioning teams. Information is provided about adverse impacts on patient outcomes if there is poor communication within the multidisciplinary team. Evidence about strategies to improve communication within the multidisciplinary team is presented, supported by practical exercises to apply learning into the clinical setting.