Skip to main content
ACR 2024 Annual Meeting Posters Main banner
Icon Legend
This session is not in your schedule.
This session is in your schedule. Click again to remove it.
Rate ePoster

Quality and Safety

Standardizing Multidisciplinary Case Conferences in the Era of Epic and Enhancing Communication between Referring Physicians and Radiologists

Saturday, April 13, 2024
10:00 AM - 10:00 PM ET
Location: Foyer Kiosk

    First Author(s)

  • ZE

    Zeyad Elias, BSc

    Medical Student
    Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto
    Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto
    Milton, Ontario, Canada

    • Co-Author(s)

  • UT

    Usman Tarique, B.H.Sc., MD, FRCPC

    Co-author. Radiologist
    Joint Department of Medical Imaging, University of Toronto. Trillium Health Partners., Ontario, Canada

  • PV

    Patrick Veit-Haibach, MD

    Co-supervisor- Professor, Medical Imaging
    Joint Department of Medical Imaging, University of Toronto., Ontario, Canada

  • AK

    Ania Kielar, BSc, MD, FRCPC

    Principal Investigator- Associate Professor, Medical Imaging
    Joint Department of Medical Imaging, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Purpose: To assess the effectiveness of standardizing multidisciplinary case conferences (MDC).

Methods/Materials: Anonymous electronic surveys gauged opinions and preferences of a group of radiologists at multiple institutions engaged in recurring MDCs. A standardized Excel template aligned with stakeholder preferences, Cancer Care Ontario guidelines, and relevant literature was distributed to referring physicians and MDC managers. Physicians were instructed to send cases for review 36 hours prior to MDC, and template adherence was assessed at 2 months. Radiologists participating in multiple MDCs completed a follow-up survey at 4 months to assess the intervention’s effectiveness.

Results: 27 radiologists provided 47 baseline and 23 follow-up responses. Most reported no protected time for MDC preparation (42/47, 89%). 72% disagreed that uploading remote imaging to the servers is easy (33/46). This persisted at follow-up (18/23, 78%). "Often/always" being provided the image’s location increased from 36% (17/47) to 70% (16/23) at follow-up. The 36-hour cut-off for add-on cases was "rarely/never" followed in 36% (16/45) of baseline and 17% (4/23) of follow-up cases. In assessing the intervention, 18% reported no change (4/22), 41% noted some changes with remaining inconsistencies (9/22), and another 41% considered MDCs already standardized and not requiring updates (9/22). Those reporting no change experienced a higher frequency of non-adherence to the 36-hour cutoff (3/4, 75%) compared to others (1/18, 6%), and less frequent “often/always” ratings for image location being provided (3/4, 75%) than others (2/18, 11%). MDC’s adoption of the template was high, at 88% (21/24). Issues regarding access to external images and last-minute add-on cases may be mitigated through force functions integrated into EPIC (electronic medical record), and protected time. Artificial intelligence advancements may potentially assist in retrieving external images and relevant patient information.

Conclusions: Adherence to MDC standardization was high, allowing for more efficient preparation, potentially reducing radiologist administrative burdens. Force functions and artificial intelligence integrations into EPIC may further augment this.