Building a multidisciplinary team for burn treatment - Lessons learned from the Montreal tendon transfer experience

Area of Science:

• Health Services Research
• Rehabilitation Medicine
• Burn Care Management

Background:

• Multidisciplinary teams (MDTs) are crucial for complex conditions like burns.
• Many institutions lack support and specialists lack managerial skills for MDT formation.
• Challenges include inadequate resources and difficulties in team establishment.

Purpose of the Study:

• To guide healthcare professionals in forming MDTs for burn treatment.
• To identify challenges and facilitating elements for establishing burn care MDTs.
• To provide insights based on a real-world project experience.

Main Methods:

• Qualitative analysis of correspondences from a tetraplegia project (2006-2008) in a plastic surgery department and rehabilitation center.
• Thematic analysis guided by complexity theory.
• NVivo software used for analysis, with data organized chronologically.

Main Results:

• Three main themes emerged: knowledge acquisition (24%), project organizational setup (50%), and project steps design (26%).
• Significant increases in project steps design and knowledge acquisition were observed after introducing a mentor team.
• Project organizational setup was the most frequent theme in communications.

Conclusions:

• Early association with a mentor team is highly beneficial for establishing effective MDTs.
• Addressing managerial skill gaps and providing adequate support are critical for MDT success.
• Complexity theory provides a useful framework for understanding MDT formation dynamics.