Multidisciplinary meetings

At Edward-Elmhurst Health, breast cancer experts from multiple disciplines meet every week, in one room, about you — from the moment you are diagnosed. Throughout your care, you'll have conveniently scheduled appointments with these experts, often on the same day, and all under one roof.

The team meets regularly about you

Following your diagnosis and before you begin treatment, our breast cancer experts from multiple disciplines come together in a Breast Multidisciplinary Conference. This is when all of your providers get together in the same room to closely review your imaging tests and biopsy results and share their expertise to determine the right treatment approach for you. We do this for every patient at their initial diagnosis, and again at various times throughout treatment.

You benefit from the collaboration of radiologists, oncologists, surgeons, genetic counselors and other specialists sharing information and insight about your care. For example, if your diagnostic tests show a large tumor that requires surgery, you may receive targeted therapy or chemotherapy before surgery to shrink the tumor so your surgery can be less extensive and your recovery easier, or vice versa. If you are eligible for any clinical trials, we discuss it here as well.

Throughout your care, the team continues to meet for weekly conferences to review your progress, such as after chemotherapy or surgery, or any time one of your physicians has a question for the team.

The team meets with you under one roof

When it comes to cancer, multiple office visits to different specialists can translate into time lost waiting for appointments when treatments should be underway.

Following our weekly conference where we meet as a team to develop your plan of care, you'll have scheduled appointments in our Breast Multidisciplinary Clinic, where you meet with experts from a variety of specialties — such as breast surgeons, reconstructive surgeons, medical oncologists, radiation oncologists and genetic counselors — all on the same day (when appropriate) and under one roof. This helps to speed up treatment and provide you with comprehensive, more convenient, care close to home.