Use of a Simulated Tumor Board to Teach Oncology and Multidisciplinary Collaboration to Pre-clinical Medical Students

There is a need to teach interdisciplinary education in undergraduate medical education to encourage the fundamentals of teamwork and communication for enhanced patient outcomes. This report describes a novel interdisciplinary education session in the form of a simulated multidisciplinary oncology tumor board (TB) for pre-clinical medical students. Goals included the following: review of select pre-clinical lung cancer learning points, demonstration of diagnostic techniques relevant to the workup of lung cancer, and exposition of multidisciplinary and interprofessional teamwork. One hundred and sixty-four first-year medical students attended the required in-person session. A pre-recorded introduction to tumor boards and a pre-quiz were assigned to assess pre-session understanding. The in-person component consisted of three case-based learning scenarios: first, a simulated interdisciplinary tumor board panel on lung adenocarcinoma followed by two cases on squamous cell carcinoma and small cell lung cancer during which students worked collaboratively to answer board-style multiple choice questions on case-specific basic science. Seventy-two students (43.9%) completed the anonymous post-session evaluation survey. Feedback was largely positive, with 55 (76.4%) students reporting a better understanding of multidisciplinary care. Fifty (69.4%) students reported the session helpful in highlighting board-style lung cancer basic science content. Simulated TBs may be an effective strategy to reinforce oncology content and highlight the importance of multidisciplinary and interprofessional patient care for pre-clinical medical students.