Reforming Cancer Multidisciplinary Team Meetings: Introducing a Novel Clinical Radiological Assessment Meeting (CRAM)...

Area of Science:

• Oncology
• Radiology
• Healthcare Management

Background:

• Multidisciplinary team (MDT) meetings are standard for cancer patient care but face capacity challenges.
• Supplementary approaches are needed to improve efficiency in cancer management.
• The Clinical Radiological Assessment Meeting (CRAM) was developed as a 'mini-MDT' to address these issues.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the effectiveness of a novel Clinical Radiological Assessment Meeting (CRAM) in expediting decision-making for cancer patients.
• To compare patient response times before and after the implementation of the CRAM.
• To assess the impact of CRAM on the workload and function of the specialist Multidisciplinary Team (MDT).

Main Methods:

• Retrospective analysis of new referrals to a peritoneal malignancy unit (September 2016 - August 2018).
• Assessment of time to first response and decision for traditional pathways versus the CRAM pathway.
• Comparison of response times using the Mann-Whitney U test.

Main Results:

• Median referral to first response time decreased from 8 days (traditional) to 5 days (CRAM) (p <0.001).
• The proportion of patients discussed in the specialist MDT decreased from 30.4% pre-CRAM to 17.2% post-CRAM.
• Total referrals analyzed: 1478 (769 pre-CRAM, 709 post-CRAM).

Conclusions:

• The CRAM significantly reduced response times, enabling faster and safer patient assessments and decisions.
• The CRAM facilitated more appropriate utilization of the specialist MDT.
• This novel approach enhances the efficiency of cancer patient management pathways.