[An analysis of medical decision making: The case of multidisciplinary team meetings]

Practitioners provide patients with the best possible diagnostic and/or therapeutic decision. This assertion implies that the medical decision must be based on two criteria: in accordance with the current state of science and to offer patients the best benefit/risk ratio. In the field of oncology, multidisciplinary team meetings aim to promote the best possible medical decision-making by imposing collective and interdisciplinary decision-making. They must therefore allow a decision in accordance with the current state of science in each of the disciplines represented. The aim of this article is to clarify what it means to make the best possible decision in the context of multidisciplinary team meetings. We will thus try to identify the conditions that make it possible to ensure collective and interdisciplinary medical decision-making based on the two criteria previously mentioned. First, we will study two theoretical propositions from the literature in the humanities and social sciences. Then, based on observations from several multidisciplinary team meetings, we will assess the relevance of these proposals for the analysis of interdisciplinary and collective medical decisions. We will underline the limits of these proposals and will identify other conditions for better understanding and ensuring "the best possible medical decision" in the specific context of multidisciplinary team meetings in oncology.