Scoping Review to Inform the Future Development of a Measure for Team-Based Care in Oncology

Area of Science:

• Health Services Research
• Oncology
• Teamwork in Healthcare

Background:

• Team-based care involves multiple healthcare providers collaborating for optimal patient outcomes.
• The National Cancer Institute and ASCO defined 13 key principles for successful healthcare teams.
• The existence of validated measures for these principles was previously unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

• To conduct a scoping literature search to identify existing measures for the 13 key principles of team-based care.
• To determine the availability and scope of measurement tools for established team-based care principles.

Main Methods:

• A comprehensive literature search was performed on PubMed and Embase for each key principle.
• Articles were cataloged by principle, and measures were extracted through a two-stage screening process (abstract and full-text review).

Main Results:

• Fifteen unique measures were identified, with items applicable to 12 of the 13 key principles.
• The number of measures per principle ranged from zero to five.
• No existing measures were found specifically for the principle of 'Team Composition and Diversity'.

Conclusions:

• Existing measures can address most key principles of team-based care, but gaps remain.
• Further work is needed to compile and refine these measures into a comprehensive tool.
• The ultimate goal is to optimize patient care in team-based oncology settings.