Characteristics of the Multi Disciplinary Cancer Conference (Tumor Boards) in the COVID 19 era.

Abstract

e13561 Background: Cancer centers in the US are required to discuss a minimum of 15% analytic cases and prospective presentation (minimum 80%) in the multidisciplinary case conference (tumor board, MDCC), per the Commission on Cancer accrediting standards. Tumor board discussion have been shown to improve treatment decision making and patient outcomes. These meetings were in person meetings in the Pre-COVID era. The COVID 19 pandemic and the subsequent requirements for social distancing forced hospitals to move most MDCCs to a virtual format. We report on the large scale utilization of a propriety Care-Coordination platform OncoLens to run MDCCs across the country. Methods: Technology quality metrics were collected from the ongoing daily usage of the platform including time characteristics, care team utilization metrics, average attendance, quality metrics collected for accreditation and clinical trials matching on the OncoLens platform. Results: The virtual platform was accessible to around 8000 providers across the United States. On average per month there were 250 virtual meetings with over 290,000 meeting minutes. Conferences ranged from 30 minutes to 4 hours. 75% of users used the web application 25% of users utilized their smart phones .System uptime was 99.99%. Hospitals were able to conduct General and Site specific conferences. Virtual attendance of the required specialties of Medical Oncology, Radiation Oncology, Surgery, Pathology and Radiology was attained, with the average conference attendance being 14. On average hospitals required 2 administrative training sessions. Most of the case presentations were prospective. This format does enable cancer programs to collect quality metrics around Cancer program accreditation by the American College of Surgeons. A wide variety of common and rare cancer types were discussed in the virtual format. 66% of patients discussed potentially matched to clinical trials during the discussion. Conclusions: The shift of MDCCs to a mostly virtual environment occurred quickly in response to the COVID 19 pandemic. It took an average of 2 training classes to get the cancer care team on board with the use of new technology. It is possible to have high quality discussions and attain metrics for Commission On Cancer accreditation utilizing a virtual platform.