Factors influencing discussion duration in breast cancer multidisciplinary team meetings: insights for streamlining care.

چکیده اصلی

PURPOSE: Multidisciplinary team meetings (MDTMs) in breast cancer care improve outcomes but are time-consuming and costly. This study investigates using data from the Dutch national cancer registry (NCR) and hospital electronic medical records (EMR) to efficiently calculate MDTM discussion durations, while complying with privacy laws. METHODS: This retrospective study analyzed breast cancer MDTM discussion durations using NCR and EMR data from 2014 to 2018. Discussion times were estimated from EMR timestamps, excluding outliers, and analyzed statistically. Ethical approval was obtained, including only non-opt-out patients. RESULTS: The final dataset included 1,048 tumors, 996 patients, and 1,487 MDTM discussion times after exclusions for missing data, duplicates, and outliers. Discussion durations varied significantly, with pre-operative and no-surgery discussions being longer than post-operative ones (p = 0.000), and factors such as MRI availability, tumor differentiation, malignancy, menopausal status, and cancer stage influencing duration in pre-operative cases. In post-operative discussions, molecular subtype, cancer stage, and tumor size were significant, while age, tumor differentiation, and menopausal status had no impact. CONCLUSION: This study evaluates discussion durations in breast cancer MDTMs using retrospective data from the NCR and EMR, demonstrating a feasible approach to assess MDTM functioning. Differences in discussion duration based on patient and tumor characteristics may help optimize MDTM efficiency. CLINICAL TRIAL NUMBER: Not applicable.

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