American Thyroid Association statement on the essential elements of interdisciplinary communication of perioperative information for patients undergoing thyroid cancer surgery. uri icon

Overview

abstract

  • BACKGROUND: Thyroid cancer specialists require specific perioperative information to develop a management plan for patients with thyroid cancer, but there is not yet a model for effective interdisciplinary data communication. The American Thyroid Association Surgical Affairs Committee was asked to define a suggested essential perioperative dataset representing the critical information that should be readily available to participating members of the treatment team. METHODS: To identify and agree upon a multidisciplinary set of critical perioperative findings requiring communication, we examined diverse best-practice documents relating to thyroidectomy and extracted common features felt to enhance precise, direct communication with nonsurgical caregivers. RESULTS: Suggested essential datasets for the preoperative, intraoperative, and immediate postoperative findings and management of patients undergoing surgery for thyroid cancer were identified and are presented. For operative reporting, the essential features of both a dictated narrative format and a synoptic computer format are modeled in detail. The importance of interdisciplinary communication is discussed with regard to the extent of required resection, the final pathology findings, surgical complications, and other factors that may influence risk stratification, adjuvant treatment, and surveillance. CONCLUSIONS: Accurate communication of the important findings and sequelae of thyroidectomy for cancer is critical to individualized risk stratification as well as to the clinical issues of thyroid cancer care that are often jointly managed in the postoperative setting. True interdisciplinary care is essential to providing optimal care and surveillance.

publication date

  • February 21, 2012

Research

keywords

  • Interdisciplinary Communication
  • Perioperative Care
  • Thyroid Neoplasms

Identity

Scopus Document Identifier

  • 84859372582

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  • 10.1089/thy.2011.0423

PubMed ID

  • 22352873

Additional Document Info

volume

  • 22

issue

  • 4