Collaborative Care Challenges

A collaborative treatment approach for patients with advanced skin cancer is best achieved through the formation of multi-disciplinary teams (MDTs), according to experts. This approach provides patients with reassurance that numerous physicians have been involved with the development of the treatment plan.Clinicians including a dermatologist, medical oncologist, and surgical oncologist discussed the challenges in delivering care through the MDT approach at the 9th annual Canadian melanoma conference.Geographical obstacles
When care is delivered in the community, as opposed to academic centers, there are more obstacles to developing a MDT care model, explained Merrick Ross, M.D., a surgical oncologist, chief, melanoma section and department of surgical oncology and the Charles McBride professor of surgical oncology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.”A lot of melanoma treatment is not being delivered in academic centers,” Dr. Ross says. “It is being delivered in the community, where it is more difficult to implement a multi-disciplinary approach. The offices (of various clinicians) are not necessarily located nearby, making it inconvenient (for physicians and for patients). Travelling for the patient to go see this person and that person may not be convenient.”Read more at Dermatology Times.