Prior Experience with Virtual Tumor Boards
Virtual MDC has been employed in multiple settings including evaluation of lung cancer16,17, hepatocellular carcinoma18, breast cancer19, GI cancer19, malignant hematology19, general oncology20,21, and head and neck22. Utilization of virtual MDC has been associated with improved referral coordination20, decreased delays in diagnosis and treatment16,18,20, higher frequency of MDT evaluation18, and reduced patient18,20 and provider travel burden16. Reported challenges in implementing a virtual MDC program include reliable technical setup16,20, increased length of virtual case presentations21, paucity of community provider cases19,20, delay in receiving supporting information such as imaging and pathology slides19, and cost of virtual informatics infrastructure17. Even with these barriers, it appears that virtual MDC participants in general either endorse or find it comparable to traditional in-person meetings19,21. However, the extent to which a virtual MDC affects guideline adherence and patient outcomes in comparison to a traditional MDC is yet to be studied. As more data becomes available with regards to MDC quality improvement, these relationships will be detected.