Establishing a video Multidisciplinary Team meeting between Cameroon,
Central Africa, and Leeds, UK, childhood cancer services
Abstract
Abstract Background and aims Multidisciplinary team (MDT) meetings
provide a regular, structured meeting of a core group of professionals
to provide expert decision-making in individual patient care. We
describe our experiences in establishing a virtual pediatric oncology
MDT between twinning partners in Cameroon (4 hospitals) and the UK.
Methods Monthly video conferencing MDT meetings were established in
March 2019, initially using Google meet then using Zoom platforms. Case
details were circulated using formal proformas. Standard operating
procedures were outlined for the MDT conduct. Results There have been
269 discussions of 201 patients in 21 meetings. Patients have been
varied in age (up to 24 years). Eighty-seven (43.3%) patients had NHL,
16 (8.0%) had Wilms tumour, 20 (10.0%) had Acute Lymphoblastic
Leukaemia, 19 (9.5%) had Retinoblastoma and 59 (29.4%) had other
malignancies. Four of the patients did not have a malignancy. The
majority of patients had stage 3 (51, 45.1%) or stage 4 (59, 52.2%).
Nine patients had relapsed disease. Core team members reported positive
benefits from the MDT, including defining goals of care, shared decision
making, professional education and team-building. Conclusions Virtual
MDT meetings between geographically dispersed teams are possible and
have proved particularly valuable during the COVID-19 pandemic when
in-person visits are not permitted. Cancer treatment cannot be done in
isolation; the regular MDT meetings have paved the way for informed care
through regular consultancy.