As medicine becomes more specialized, the need for interdisciplinary integration between experts with different backgrounds becomes increasingly important. A new study illustrates the value of interdisciplinary integration when treating cancer.
Researchers examined 2,315 patients who had been receiving treatment from a program with a specially designed multidisciplinary model of care. The new model involved a core group of medical professionals, including pathologists, oncologists, pulmonologists, nutritionists, and primary care physicians, who met regularly and collaborated to create a unified treatment plan.
The researchers also examined 1,956 patients who received a more “traditional“ model in which the different health professionals were more segmented and there was no organized time allocated for direct collaboration.
Overall, the patients receiving the treatment from the multidisciplinary model experienced better outcomes. The one year survival rate for patients with stage-one cancer was 92.4% for the multidisciplinary model and 79.2% with standard care. The five year survival rates for stage-one patients was 52.5% with the multidisciplinary model and 32.8% for the standard model. For all types of patients, regardless of disease stage, the five-year survival rates were 33.6% for the multidisciplinary approach and 23% for the standard approach.
Conclusions
Although this study was specific to health professionals treating patients suffering from cancer, the findings likely apply to all branches of medicine. No single expert has all of the answers and there is a growing need for effective interdisciplinary integration between professionals from differing backgrounds.
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