Vienna Summer School on Oncology: how to teach clinical decision making in a multidisciplinary environment

BACKGROUND: Clinical decision making in oncology is based on both inter- and multidisciplinary approach. Hence teaching future doctors involved in oncology or general health practice is crucial. The aim of the Vienna Summer School on Oncology (VSSO) as an international, integrated, undergraduate oncology course is to teach medical students interdisciplinary team communication and application of treatment concepts/algorithms in a multidisciplinary setting. METHOD: The teaching is based on an inter- and multidisciplinary faculty and a multimodal education approach to address different learning styles. The participants rated their satisfaction of the program voluntarily after finishing the course according to a grading scale from one (not good) to five (very good). The learning success was assessed by a compulsory pre-VSSO and post-VSSO single choice questionnaire. RESULTS: Program organisation was rated with a mean score of 4.47 out of 5.0 (SD 0.51), composition of the program and range of topics with a mean score of 4.68 (SD 0.58) and all teachers with a mean score of 4.36 (SD 0.40) points. Student evaluation at the beginning and end of the program indicated significant knowledge acquisition –i.e., general aspects of cancer: median 8.75 points (IQR 7.5–9.4) vs.10.0 points (IQR 9.4–10.0) p = 0.005; specific aspects of cancer: median 4.87 points (IQR 3.33–5.71) vs. 8.72 points (IQR 6.78–9.49) p ≤ 0.001, respectively. CONCLUSION: Even though the participants represent a selection of students with special interest in cancer, the results of the VSSO indicate the benefit of an inter- and multidisciplinary teaching approach within an oncology module. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12909-017-0922-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.