Transforming MDTs - Streamlining Clinical Workflows

Chapter 3

Salutare’s Dialogue has been developed by a team of clinicians with advice from MDT coordinators, and MDT clinicians.  All have experienced the pain of cancer MDTs for many years. By observing the problems, listening to the pain points experienced by MDT coordinators and MDT chairs and Clinical nurse specialists, we have developed simple solutions to these common problems.  Designed by clinicians and coordinators for those that work with MDTs, we have developed a simple user-friendly interface that requires no training, which ingests demographics, co-morbidities and lists of medications from the national spine, and asks four simple questions – the history of the presenting complaint, previous related treatments, is the patient aware of the referral and what is the question you are asking of the MDT.  Each MDT can add up to 5 questions – usually yes/no answers. The emphasis is on simplicity since simplicity is safety. 

Let us return to the patient.  The gold-standard MDT becomes a ‘safety net’, the catch-all solution to the fragility and porousness of the wider system, and yet what is achieved is not safety but its semblance. With every additional case the list grows, and with the lengthening of the meeting comes the dilution of its quality. Your case is 65th on the list. Almost 3 hours into the meeting, will the focus be waxing or waning? Will energy and concentration have plummeted and plateaued or will there be a second wind? In truth, it’s hard to know. But one thing is for sure: that ‘Gold-Standard’ care is beginning to look worryingly theoretical.         

Salutare’s Dialogue has been designed to make streamlining easy be it for pathology, radiology, a specific hospital or a precious clinician’s cases.  Thus, each case can be tagged, and sorted at the click to create a new list with a click and reveal button for each member of the MDT panel.  As alluded to earlier, some clinicians tend to stary silent, even if they know a lot about a particular case – let them comment and add to the discussion easily and without “pressure” so that everyone’s voice is heard. 

In this way every MDT meeting can become a dialogue between clinicians, all of whom want the best for their patients. Let us transform MDTs from being a slog to one of learning, to becoming a hotbed of data useful for clinical research, and advancement of clinical care. 

It is time to be Healthcareful®