Healthcare Teams & Teamwork Processes in Cancer Care Delivery

Events

• Healthcare Teams Cyber Discussions
• Measures and Methods to Advance the Science of Teaming and Coordination in Cancer Care

Background

Reducing cancer morbidity and mortality requires interactions between patients, caregivers, clinicians, and clinical staff from primary care and multiple specialties. Challenges to and breakdowns in communication and coordination across the cancer continuum are common, diminish patient outcomes, and contribute to patient, caregiver, and clinician workload. Improving the function of healthcare teams, defined as two or more people who interact to achieve shared patient care goals, was identified by the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine as a vital step toward delivering high-quality, well-coordinated care across the cancer care continuum for all people. The goal of the Healthcare Teams initiative is to advance a program of research that supports the development and implementation of evidence-based strategies that improve healthcare team functioning, care coordination, and cancer-related outcomes.

NCI is conducting several activities in service of building such a program of research. This work aims to:

• Identify principles of team structure and teamwork processes that enhance the delivery of multidisciplinary cancer care
• Promote generation of evidence-based interventions to strengthen teaming and care coordination across the cancer care continuum, particularly among underserved populations and during care transitions
• Develop an interdisciplinary community of investigators whose research furthers an evidence-based understanding of team-based care structures and teamwork process that influence care coordination and equitable access to high-quality cancer care and other collaborators working to facilitate adoption of findings into cancer care practice