multi-disciplinary team


multi-disciplinary team

A team of professionals in the UK who share expertise in a particular area of health care, typically cancer. MDTs are regarded as central to improving outcomes for cancer patients, by enhancing communication between those involved in patient care, and treating patients according to locally agreed protocols and clinical guidelines. Patients managed by MDTs are more likely to:
• Be offered a range of effective interventions than if managed by only one doctor;
• Have less variability in management and outcomes and avoid individual “outliers” who may provide suboptimal care;
• Receive better co-ordination and continuity of care through all stages of their disease;
• Be offered appropriate and consistent information ;
• Have psycho-social issues addressed, improving their overall care.
There is a drive in the UK for site-specific specialisation, which means that the MDTs develop higher levels of knowledge, skills, expertise and experience, resulting in improved diagnosis and care for cancer patients.
 
Members of MDT
Site-specific surgeon, radiologist, histopathologist, specialist nursing staff and haematologist, medical oncologist, radiotherapist, post-graduate physicist and palliative care doctor, if warranted.