962P - Best practices and impact of multi-disciplinary teams on hepatocellular carcinoma treatment: Insights from a global effort

Background

Multi-disciplinary teams (MDTs) are key in the hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) care pathway. They leverage the diverse member expertise to achieve better treatment decisions and patient outcomes compared to a single discipline without peer-discussion. MDTs drive earlier treatment initiation and improved guideline concordant care, positively impacting survival outcomes. Despite their common objective, the constitution and operations of HCC MDTs are variable across hospitals and regions, which may lead to sub-optimal outcomes, such as inconsistencies from numbers of patients treated to survival rates. The previously published framework by the MDT Aid Program (MAP) was used to gather best practices and perceived impact of HCC MDTs.

Methods

Over 130 semi-structured interviews were conducted with MDT members from 24 hospitals across Europe, Canada, US and China. A questionnaire was used to assess MDT member’s perceived impact of HCC MDTs on: MDT status quo (team composition, process), patient pathway (scale, time) and qualitative impact (patient outcomes, cost). Best practices and perceived impact were then pressure tested with 24 working groups within respective hospitals, and a cross-country panel of international HCC experts in a knowledge exchange session.

Results

We obtained 3 sets of results: (1) an optimal HCC MDT structure reflecting the dimensions stated above, (2) 40+ best practices encompassing patient access, MDT operations, technology utilisation, medical practice quality, team capabilities, and (3) insights on MDT members’ perception on the impact of HCC MDTs on patient outcomes and satisfaction. With this, hospital gaps were identified and matched to actionable best practices ready for implementation.

Conclusions

This is the first study to provide insights into specific HCC MDTs ways of working and recommended best practices. This can improve how MDTs are organized and managed globally, ultimately improving patient outcomes. The account of MDT members’ perceived impact of HCC MDTs will be used to inform the design of a real-world evidence study, aiming to quantitatively assess HCC MDTs impact on patient outcomes and healthcare resource utilisation.

Clinical trial identification

Editorial acknowledgement

Legal entity responsible for the study

AstraZeneca.

Funding

AstraZeneca.

Disclosure

M.T. Campos Partera: Financial Interests, Personal, Stocks/Shares: AstraZeneca. A. Vogel: Financial Interests, Personal, Advisory Board: Amgen, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Mannheim, Eisai, Incyte, Ipsen, Janssen, MSD, Pierre Fabre, Roche, Servier, Tyra, Tahio; Financial Interests, Personal, Invited Speaker: BMS, Eisai, Ipsen, Lilly, MSD, Roche, AstraZeneca; Financial Interests, Personal, Steering Committee Member: Roche, MSD, BeiGene, Jiangsu Hengrui Medicines. G. Sapisochin: Financial Interests, Personal, Advisory Board: AstraZeneca, Roche, HeparRegeniX; Financial Interests, Personal, Invited Speaker: AstraZeneca, Integra, Chiesi; Financial Interests, Personal, Other, Research study: Novartis; Financial Interests, Personal, Stocks/Shares: Amgen, CVS Health, Gilead, J&J, Merck, Pfizer, UnitedHealth; Financial Interests, Institutional, Coordinating PI: AstraZeneca; Financial Interests, Institutional, Funding: Roche, Stryker. A. Digklia: Financial Interests, Institutional, Invited Speaker: BMS, Roche; Financial Interests, Institutional, Advisory Board: AstraZeneca. G.E. Villadsen: Financial Interests, Personal, Invited Speaker: Sirtex C. Schnatwinkel: Financial Interests, Personal, Stocks/Shares: AstraZeneca, Ipsen. L. Turner: Financial Interests, Personal, Stocks/Shares: AstraZeneca. W. Vereecken: Financial Interests, Personal, Stocks/Shares: AstraZeneca, Merck. A. Moucquot: Financial Interests, Personal, Stocks/Shares: Pfizer, Moderna. H. Naqvi: Financial Interests, Personal, Stocks/Shares: AstraZeneca, Roche, Pfizer, Lily, GE, IBM. All other authors have declared no conflicts of interest.