Understanding the Complexity, Underlying Processes, and Influencing Factors for Optimal Multidisciplinary Teamwork in Hospital-Based Cancer Teams. A Systematic Integrative Review

Background: Multidisciplinary teamwork has become the standard in care for oncological patients and their treatment trajectory when comprehensive, holistic, and high-quality cancer care is needed. Working together from a variety of perspectives is difficult to achieve and has well-known pitfalls, such as miscommunication and poor coordination.

Objective: To describe and synthesize the factors influencing and the processes underlying optimal multidisciplinary teamwork.

Methods: An integrative review was conducted, guided by the framework of Whittemore and Knafl. The systematic search for literature published since 2010 in 3 databases (PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus) yielded 49 articles.

Results: Eighty-eight percent of the included studies focus on multidisciplinary team meetings, rather than on the wider notion of multidisciplinary teamwork. We identified influencing factors on the basis of structural features of the team, hospital, and health system, as well as process features of multidisciplinary teamwork in multidisciplinary team meetings.

Conclusion: To improve multidisciplinary teamwork, the focus needs to be on the process of collaboration throughout the cancer care trajectory of the patient. A more integrated, interdisciplinary approach should be aimed for to recognize the role and contribution of all disciplines involved.

Implications: A cultural change is needed toward interdisciplinary practice in hospitals to reach partnership between all involved professionals as part of a participatory, collaborative, and coordinated approach.