Quality assessment of a multidisciplinary tumour meeting for patients with head and neck cancer.

Head and neck oncology MDT meetings are held in our region to establish a correct diagnosis and an appropriate treatment plan for each reviewed patient. The quality of these MDT meetings was assessed based on the following factors: How often can a diagnosis, a TNM-classification and a treatment plan be successfully established from the workup presented at the patient's first MDT meeting? And what are the reasons for failure? Further, how often are the TNM-classification altered at treatment start? All patients (n=329) presented at MDT meetings during one year were included prospectively and data were collected in a protocol. As telemedicine recently was introduced to reduce travel, any eventual impact on quality on decisions with regard to telemedicine were also studied. A diagnosis and a treatment plan could be established for 236 (73%) of 324 patients at the first MDT meeting. TNM classification was revised in four patients (1.4%) before treatment. In conclusion, the validity of decisions made at the MDT meeting is satisfactory, but improvements regarding the quality of workups are possible. The mode of presentation of patients at the MDT meeting was not decisive for the quality of decisions regarding diagnosis and treatment plans.