What is MDT?

The full name of MDT is Multi-DisciplinaryTreatment, which means multidisciplinary consultation, is a process in which senior experts from multiple disciplines work together to develop personalized treatment plans for patients. The battle with disease is never a process that can be won by a single doctor, from a single pill to a comprehensive treatment of surgery and radiotherapy, all of which involve the expertise and wisdom of medical professionals from different subspecialties. Today, we will introduce its past life and why we need it so much. The MDT model was first proposed by the Mayo Clinic in the United States in the 1960s and developed rapidly after formalization by MD Anderson and other medical centers after the 1990s. In Europe and the United States, the multidisciplinary model of care (MDT) has become the norm, and the United Kingdom even legislated in 2007 that every cancer patient needs to undergo comprehensive MDT treatment. The “personalized treatment plan for patients” means that the treatment process will be centered on one patient, and multidisciplinary collaboration will be carried out in a standardized manner. With the rapid development of modern medical technology, the larger the hospital, the more subspecialties and subspecialties there are. The advantages and disadvantages of the subdivision of specialties are obvious, that is, it can bring more specialized treatment services to patients in a certain treatment area; however, the disadvantages are also obvious, such as doctors of different specialties work separately, they are often only familiar with their own specialties and do not know much about other areas, which is obviously not conducive to the comprehensive treatment of patients. In the MDT model of pediatric neurosurgery, certain difficult diseases are often encountered, and at this time, in addition to the pediatric neurosurgeon, a comprehensive assessment by a team of experts from pediatrics, internal medicine, imaging, pathology, radiotherapy and other related disciplines is needed to jointly develop a scientific, rational and standardized treatment plan. In MDT, each subspecialist has an equal right to speak, but for a particular child with different clinical case characteristics and focus, doctors from one or two subspecialties will have a greater influence on the medical plan. The subspecialists discuss and reach a consensus on what treatment should be used first, what treatment should be used second, or what treatment should not be used, providing a “one-stop” service for the child. The MDT model changes the “single-army” model into a “multi-army” model, which can minimize misdiagnosis and mistreatment of patients, shorten the waiting time for diagnosis and treatment, increase the selectivity of treatment options, develop the best treatment, and avoid the burden of non-stop referrals and repeated examinations on the families of children. According to relevant studies, the five-year survival rate of patients with different tumors is significantly increased by 15-40% after MDT mode of treatment. At the same time, MDT model significantly reduces the surgical mortality rate of different tumor treatments. We hope that with our efforts, we can help more children.