Off to boarding school: Exploring how physicians learn in Tumor Board

Tumor Board (TB) is a multidisciplinary care conference tradition in adult and pediatric oncology. The Commission on Cancer requires cancer programs to hold multidisciplinary cancer case conferences. Data support improvements in clinical decision-making due to TB and perception of learning value. Data are lacking on how physician participants learn in this environment.

Our exploratory, qualitative research study rooted in naturalistic inquiry explored how physician participants learn in TB. Fifteen participants were purposefully sampled and completed semi-structured interviews. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed to produce themes.

Five themes arose: (i) mutual educational goals by participating stakeholders are beneficial to educational experiences in TB; (ii) for trainees, presenting TB cases is important for learning; (iii) for attendees of TB, discussion and collaboration surrounding the content of presentations has implications for learning; (iv) participants of TB are responsible for cultivating their learning environment and teaching one another; and (v) virtual TB alters the opportunity to participate and engage with the subject matter, impacting learning for participants.

Exploring TB through the lens of an educational framework is a novel approach. By identifying the facilitators and inhibitors of learning in TB, opportunities to enhance the educational process in TB are now exposed. Our study illustrates that learning in TB occurs through the cognitive apprenticeship model, and provides insight on how to best cultivate this model to improve learning. These data demonstrate the social nature of learning, and how they align with the pediatric hematology/oncology community of practice.