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