Abstract
When it is necessary to adopt a team approach for treating patients with cleft lip and/or palate, it is usually appropriate that the team members come from the same institution. However, as members are selected for their specialist knowledge for the treatment, it is sometimes difficult to gather all members from the same institution. This paper presents a new type of multidisciplinary team approach composed of specialists from different institutions. This special meeting is called the “Kobe Conference”.
This conference is held three times a year. The team specialists are plastic surgeons, orthodontists and speech-language pathologists. An interview is arranged and the examination includes flexible endoscopic and cephalometric observations. After this investigation, all members discuss the diagnosis and create a treatment plan. The aim is to enable each specialist to share the same information, in order to deepen the discussion and to enable the team to create a proper treatment plan. An additional benefit is that the younger, less experienced practitioners can study at clinics that specialize in cleft palate treatment.
A medical camp is also held by the same members once a year during the summer. This camp is good not only for the members of the conference to observe the communication skills and social abilities but also for the patients and caregivers to understand the diseases and treatments under stable psychological conditions.
