Creating a Pathway for Multidisciplinary Shared Decision-Making to Improve Communication During Preoperative Assessment.

Shared decision-making (SDM) is essential for high-quality surgical care. Barriers to SDM exist in clinical practice but there is evidence these obstacles can be overcome. SDM requires clinician and patient engagement.

A novel anesthesiologist-led multidisciplinary model for evaluating high-risk surgical patients at a comprehensive cancer center.

The objective of this retrospective analysis was to describe the development and implementation of an anesthesiologist-led multidisciplinary committee to evaluate high-risk surgical patients in order to improve surgical appropriateness. The study was conducted in an anesthesia preoperative evaluation clinic at an academic comprehensive cancer center. One hundred sixty-seven high-risk surgical patients with cancer-related diagnoses were evaluated and discussed at a High-Risk Committee (HRC) meeting to determine surgical appropriateness and optimize perioperative care.