Clinical decision support facilitates multidisciplinary tumor board decision-making

Clinical decision support facilitates multidisciplinary tumor board decision-making

Oncology care teams access relevant data in the clinic or from remote locations

As our understanding of biology and cancer has grown, it has exposed the sheer complexity of patient care as well as the opportunity to personalize treatment. In seizing that opportunity, many people engage in the care of each person with cancer.

Thus, communication is imperative, from sharing tumor locations and diagnostic test results to discussing multimodality care and logical next steps.

In a tumor board meeting, collaboration takes priority. Clinicians seek to select the best therapy at the time of a cancer diagnosis and then the treatments that should follow, all along the care continuum.

A digital tumor board workflow can improve communication and understanding when specialists cannot meet in person. Through teleconferencing, an established team’s members can meet regardless of their individual locations. Additionally, unique teams can assemble as needed, uniting experts around the globe to agree on an evidence-based treatment path. Based on comprehensive patient information, clinical decision support (CDS) tools in the digital tumor board workflow can identify relevant clinical practice guidelines, the latest medical and scientific research, and accessible clinical trials open to enrollment.

Cloud-based virtual meetings

  • Digitally created single patient presentations
  • Systems integration = holistic patient view with longitudinal history
  • Ability to connect from any location
    • Virtual tumor boards
    • Symptom monitoring
    • Educational support
  • Case exchange and review among clinicians and institutions (e.g., for second opinions)

Virtual tumor boards enable the multidisciplinary team meeting to remain the central element of collaboration. CDS apps enable decision adjudication documentation and clinician follow-up as well as patient-physician interaction. An efficient workflow built upon a digital data integration platform for holistic patient data storage and analysis can streamline tumor board scheduling and preparation, ease decision documentation, and hasten oncology patient treatment.