Multidisciplinary Cancer Care (MDC)

Treatment and supportive care for people with cancer involves a number of different medical and allied health care professionals. Evidence indicates that a team approach to cancer care, in which health care professionals together consider all treatment options and develop an individual treatment plan for each patient, can reduce mortality and improve quality of life for the patient.

Such an integrated approach to health care is known as multidisciplinary care (MDC).

MDC is becoming an increasingly important component of national and State/Territory cancer frameworks. NBOCC is committed to improving the uptake of MDC for cancer, using lessons learned from a number of key national projects, including a National Demonstration Project in breast cancer coordinated by NBCC.

Multidisciplinary care for advanced disease: a guide for cancer health professionals

Multidisciplinary care (MDC) principles for advanced disease are based on the Principles of Multidisciplinary Care developed by NBOCC and adapted to reflect the role of MDC teams in the advanced disease setting.The principles stress the importance of continuity of care, coordination, and the involvement of the patient and their nominated caregivers, where appropriate, in the treatment and care planning process. They also highlight the shift from primarily hospital-focused interventions to a more community-based approach to care.

Multidisciplinary care – what are the medicolegal implications?

Medico-legal implications of multidisciplinary treatment planning meetings is a four-page resource containing a series of recommendations that provide practical guidance to health services and health professionals about medico-legal aspects of multidisciplinary treatment planning meetings. These recommendations are based on outcomes from an expert workshop and plenary symposium held by the NBCC*during the 2007 COSA Annual Scientific Meeting. The symposium refined recommendations developed from an initial workshop held in March 2007.

Multidisciplinary care proformas

To assist in the implementation of multidisciplinary care NBOCC has developed a series of proformas. The forms are designed to provide examples of areas to include in tumour specific forms at the local level and are provided as word documents to enable editing.

MBS item for multidisciplinary cancer care

Information for health professionals about the use of MBS items 871 and 872, which provide rebates for participation in multidisciplinary treatment planning meetings for cancer patients.

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Making multidisciplinary cancer care a reality: Report and recommendations

The National Breast Cancer Centre (NBCC) has published a report highlighting outcomes and recommendations from its 2005 national forum series Making multidisciplinary cancer care a reality. The report identifies innovative solutions to some of the common barriers to the implementation of multidisciplinary cancer care (MDC) and provides both national recommendations and local implementation strategies to improve the uptake of MDC.

› View pdf (282kb)

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Multidisciplinary cancer care audit

Building on its extensive work in multidisciplinary care, NBOCC is undertaking a national audit of MDC activity in breast, gynaecological, lung, prostate and colorectal cancers. In November 2006, the Australian Government will introduce a new item through the Commonwealth Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) to support cancer specialists attending multidisciplinary care treatment planning meetings. The audit will provide a baseline snapshot of MDC activity and identify any barriers to the implementation of MDC prior to the introduction of the new MBS item.

The audit will be conducted nationally through a telephone survey with nominated individuals at a random sample of hospitals across a range of health service delivery settings. NBOCC is collaborating with State and Territory groups to administer the audit and build on existing information in MDC. For more information about the audit, contact Heidi Wilcoxon on heidi.wilcoxon@nbocc.org.au.

* In February 2008, National Breast Cancer Centre (NBCC) changed its name to National Breast and Ovarian Cancer Centre (NBOCC).