In Amsterdam UMC, per MDTM, treatment plans for 5 to 20 patients are discussed. This amounts to 12.000 to 20.000 patients annually, as there are 50 to 100 MDTMs per month. A MDTM can be conducted more efficiently, since time management, collaboration, decision-making, efficiency, job satisfaction and team spirit are not always optimal. The same goes for IT facilities and skills, although these are becoming increasingly important in the current time, within network medicine (specifically in collaboration with regional hospitals). The problems that healthcare professionals face in these areas, lead to frustration, miscommunication and loss of time & quality of care. Hence the in-depth effort to improve the MDTMs in multiple areas.
The research team studies MDTMs from different areas of expertise (psychology, sociology, behavioral sciences etc.) and multiple aspects. For example; organizational, the decision-making process, the participant perspective (health care professionals, residents and interns), the role of chairman, and digitization, so that hybrid or fully online MDTMs can be held. The effect of team training on MDTMs is also being studied. The training is continuously updated based on the insights obtained. Research takes place in collaboration with various partners such as stakeholders/programs within Amsterdam UMC, other regional hospitals or with other relevant knowledge institutes, such as the Thalma Institute. The vision is to optimize towards a future-proof MDTM in which maintaining and improving the quality of patient care has priority.
To ensure that the insights obtained, will hopefully reach the wider target group as soon as possible, a platform is being developed for sharing and providing insight into all knowledge about MDTMs: www.mdokompas.nl. Finally, a blueprint for the digital organization (equipment and etiquette) of a MDTM is being worked on.
