Table 2 Recommendations for a high-quality oncological multidisciplinary team meeting

1. MDTMs should be routinely scheduled during working hours

2. MDTMs should have a strict meeting discipline with structured presentation of information, projected imaging results and a structured discussion without interruptions. This could be included in written team guidance

3. Ensure a clear agenda with timely availability of clinical results and protected time for the core members to prepare their cases

4. Ensure attendance of all MDTM core members

5. Establish an appropriate amount of time per case; streamlining of cases might be a way to achieve this

6. Decisions made during MDTMs should be documented, preferably by an administrative support assistant using a standardised documentation template and during the meeting

7. Pay attention to a good team culture and align tasks and responsibilities among MDT-members

8. Enable structured representation of patient characteristics and preferences by the attending physician or clinical nurse specialist during the MDTM

9. Make education an explicit goal of the MDTM for all team members and enable junior doctors to actively participate

10. The process and functioning of MDTMs require structured evaluations. Several evaluation tools can be used for this, although none of these tools have proven to optimise MDTM functioning

11. Data collected during MDTMs can be used for evaluating an MDTM’s own functioning and for additional purposes (e.g. epidemiological research) and this should be facilitated. Future developments should focus on computerized clinical support systems, to implement patient data, make guidelines-based recommendations or identify patients eligible for clinical trials