Benefits of Multidisciplinary Care in Vascular Anomalies
The key goals of multidisciplinary care in vascular anomalies are to
improve the care of patients and to advance the science of the field.
Additional benefits include better access to specialized care, enhanced
education and experience for providers, and improved revenue streams for
medical centers. Vascular anomalies clinics have a particularly strong
interest in providing multidisciplinary care to their patients–whose
conditions tend to be uncommon and likely to benefit from the expertise
of multiple subspecialists–but much of the rationale for
multidisciplinary care follows from experience and research across
healthcare systems. Over the last several decades multidisciplinary care
has become increasingly common as a way to harness expertise from
multiple subspecialists and provide more streamlined and
patient-centered care.3,4 The key principles
underlying development of a successful multidisciplinary team are shared
goals, mutual trust, effective communication, and measurable processes
and outcomes.5,6 Important considerations include
developing a business plan, obtaining hospital support, creating a clear
schedule and logistics plan, outlining key role/job descriptions, and
developing methods for data collection and outcome
tracking.3 These processes will vary from center to
center depending on the resources available, but the key features should
be consistent. Multidisciplinary team improvement and checklist tools
are available, much adapted from oncology care, to organize and evaluate
such collaborations.7