Effect of digital-enabled multidisciplinary therapy conferences on efficiency and quality of the decision making in prostate cancer care.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the impact on efficiency and quality of preprostatectomy multidisciplinary therapy conferences (MDT) at Karolinska University Hospital related to the use of a digital solution compared with standard of care. Further, to explore whether gains in MDT efficiency and quality impact oncological or functional patient outcomes. METHODS: We conducted a prospective, observational study of preoperative prostate cancer MDT at Karolinska between February 2017 and March 2021, including 1329 patients. We compared efficiency and quality of the standard MDT and the MDT using the digital solution IntelliSpace Precision Medicine Multidisciplinary Team Orchestrator (ISPM) based on the previously used MDT-MODe approach. Clinical and patient-reported functional outcomes were derived from the medical records and the Swedish National Prostate Cancer Register. RESULTS: While ISPM was used during the MDT meeting, the time spent per patient was reduced by 24% (p<0.001) and most of the MDT-MODe items were scored significantly higher. There was a reduction in pelvic lymph-node dissection procedures in the ISPM cohort (p=0.001) and an increased proportion of unilateral nerve-sparing procedures (p=0.005), while all other outcome-related measures were not significantly different between the two patient groups. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: To increase the value of the MDT, all data relevant for treatment decision need to be purposefully presented and compiled, which also enables secondary use of the data.The use of a digital solution during preoperative MDTs for prostate cancer decision making at Karolinska University Hospital improved the efficiency and quality of this multidisciplinary team meeting without impacting patient outcomes.

The healthy option. Interview by Fabio Pulizzi.

Philips has recently changed its focus from electronic components to healthcare innovations. Nature Materials talked to Hans Hofstraat about the reasons behind this choice and how it affected Philips Research scientists.

OLED and PLED devices employing electrogenerated, intramolecular charge-transfer fluorescence.

The light generating mechanism of a series of light emitting diodes with electron donor-bridge-acceptor systems (D-b-A) as the emitting species was examined by constructing model diodes based on small organic molecules (OLEDs) as well as on molecularly doped electroactive (poly-N-vinylcarbazole, PVK) and insulating (polystyrene, PS) polymers (PLEDs). The direct electrogeneration of an intramolecular charge-transfer (CT) fluorescence of the donor-bridge-acceptor systems occurred readily in OLED devices with a D-b-A system as the emissive layer. In diodes with PS as the host matrix, hole-injection and electron-injection occurred directly in the D-b-A molecules residing close to the anode and the cathode, respectively. In the PVK diodes, hole-injection occurred primarily into PVK and the positive charge carrier was subsequently trapped on the D-b-A molecule, whereas electron-injection at the cathode side occurred directly into the D-b-A molecules. Charge-hopping between neighboring molecules then occurred until a hole and electron resided on the same molecule, which is equivalent to the formation of the CT excited state, and which finally relaxed by intramolecular charge recombination under the emission of CT fluorescence.