Tumour boards and their quality of processes, structures and outcomes...

In cancer research, multidisciplinary team meetings (MDTs or tumour boards) play a critical role in cancer care. MDTs provide treatment recommendations based on available information regarding medication and therapy considering a shortage of financial resources, staff shortages and less time in daily routine. In Austria, MDTs have become a standard practice for cancer patients to deliver high-quality care and to improve survival rates in defined tumour entities optimally. Nevertheless, evidence suggests that MDTs do not always work optimally in clinical decision-making and that not all MDT decisions get implemented into patient care. In addition, interfaces with other key areas in the clinics often need improvement. From the experts' perspective, we investigated factors influencing the quality of structures, processes and outcomes in tumour boards.