2. Does your MDT have a suitable environment in which to meet?

Suitable meeting facilities are essential to the functioning of an MDT meeting:

• A suitable room.
• Image viewing equipment:
  • Picture Archiving Communication System (PACS) is the Gold Standard, however this facility is not yet available in every hospital.
  • Teams should be aware of the need for a monitor in the MDT meeting room and links to other hospitals.
• Equipment for viewing pathology slides.
• Appropriate IT system to enable recording of discussion, decision and outcome in patient records.
• Video conferencing facilities if necessary for cross-site communication and to allow core members to participate.

If PACS is available a monitor should be available capable of viewing scans and images from all relevant areas. Consideration needs to be given to image links and data transfer from outside hospitals. If PACS is not available a workstation should be linked to scanners to allow MDT radiologist the same viewing facilities as the reporting radiologist.

Images from other hospitals could be transferred on CD to be viewed on DICOM viewers in conjunction with the reports.

If PACS is available this could be used for viewing pathology slides.

It is important to recognise that all MDT meetings will not have all the above in place.

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