Regional Breast Disease Working Group: Another Dimension of Breast Care

Weekly prospective treatment conferences for breast cancer are the mainstay of most comprehensive breast centers. It is at this conference that the multidisciplinary experience of patients seeing multiple physicians becomes interdisciplinary in nature - with the multiple physicians discussing the same patients and reaching a consensus recommendation. These prospective conferences typically include a single hospital medical staff. This article describes the efforts in northwest Houston where physicians from several competitive hospitals have developed a bi-monthly, regional breast cancer conference with the purpose of discussing problems encountered with complex cases and solutions attempted. The article discusses the due diligence process required to establish a regional conference and the inevitable OncoPolitics that arose among the physicians. The program has evolved into a mature meeting characterized by open and honest dialogue, collaborative discussion, and a sincere commitment to the conference.