title: American Thyroid Association statement on the essential elements of interdisciplinary communication of perioperative information for patients undergoing thyroid cancer surgery.
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.
authors.affiliation: Division of Endocrine Surgery, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213, USA. cartyse@upmc.edu
authors.forename: Sally E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Carty
authors.forename: Gerard M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Doherty
authors.forename: William B
authors.initials: WB
authors.lastname: Inabnet
authors.forename: Janice L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Pasieka
authors.forename: Gregory W
authors.initials: GW
authors.lastname: Randolph
authors.forename: Ashok R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Shaha
authors.forename: David J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Terris
authors.forename: Ralph P
authors.initials: RP
authors.lastname: Tufano
authors.forename: R Michael
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Tuttle
mesh_terms: D017028:Caregivers; D017024:Chemotherapy, Adjuvant; D016208:Databases, Factual; D006801:Humans; D033183:Interdisciplinary Communication; D010348:Patient Care Team; D019990:Perioperative Care / Q000592:standards*; D011182:Postoperative Care; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012955:Societies, Medical; D013964:Thyroid Neoplasms / Q000601:surgery*; D013965:Thyroidectomy