What does MDT, Multi-disciplinaryteam, mean? Simply put, it means multidisciplinary collaboration. But why is it suddenly popular? My personal understanding is that you do not apply a very fresh concept or something, as an application of scientific characteristics of the medical discipline is very difficult to attract the attention of others, then imitate other industries, hype, how to hype it, inseparable from playing with the concept, in the entire surgical community, there are still many “concepts” are often used to hype.
For example, for example, “minimally invasive” is often mentioned by many experts and written in articles, so that patients often come to the clinic and ask: “Dr. Lai, is your pituitary tumor here minimally invasive?
I often ask: What is minimally invasive? What kind of minimally invasive do you want?
Then I seriously told him: We are the “minimally invasive of minimally invasive”! This finally put him at ease, but I’m sure he didn’t understand. Ha!
To make a simple analogy: you buy a watermelon, make a small hole of one centimeter in size, then you insert a chopstick, and then stir hard in the internal, …… surface, the watermelon is not “minimally invasive”? But how serious the injury inside you do not know.
The MDT, the state strictly prohibit the use of Chinese words not standardized, but the country and some units like to play ball, you look at the BRT bus system in Guangzhou, BRT people know what? Many still can not read, but the authorities just do not prohibit, you check Baidu, BRT has a string of translation: do not agree, do not mess with him …… haha. You check MDT: didn’t get through …… haha.
I hate the hype in academia!
And in academia, playing with concepts is a tactic that some people like to play with. For example, the previous brain transplant, later stem cell transplant, and has been playing to the present “minimally invasive”, the most recent emergence of “precision surgery”, MDT and so on.
Let’s talk about MDT. According to the propaganda of a unit, MDT “organizational structure” consists of 7 disciplines, the main members are the core experts of these 7 departments, then there are joint clinics, weekly multidisciplinary case discussions, individualized treatment plans, etc., and then there is a complex “consultation and treatment process “I know that the experts listed are all well-known in the industry, but is it possible for you to always get these experts together for a consultation, please explain the frequency, if it is only once or twice a year, I think it is a lie; moreover, the vast majority of patients come to you because they think you are confident. The majority of patients come to you because they think you have confidence and comprehensive strength, and are not willing to tolerate “a group of experts” over the file. And when it comes to difficult and complex cases, neurosurgeons in any large hospital will also invite the relevant departments to consult and assist the patient, that is, this MDT has actually existed for a long time, you will “reorganize its assets” and then promote it, I suspect that its main purpose is to make it “packaged to buy a good price”. I suspect that the main purpose is to make it “packaged to buy a good price”, that’s all!
Finally back to the patient’s position, for patients, the important thing is not your MDT, they need your treatment safety, resection rate, cure rate, etc. He does not want you to have no bottom in mind but ask a bunch of people to discuss, but you give him the self-confidence of the treatment plan. You can get more and more complicated in academic research, but patients’ requirements are getting more and more streamlined, remembering the Kodak advertising slogan years ago, “You just need to press the shutter, we’ll do the rest”. I’ll do the rest for you.”