The Need for Multidisciplinary Hospital Teams for Injection Drug Use-related Infective Endocarditis

Injection drug use-related infective endocarditis (IDU-IE) is a complex disease with increasing incidence. Although universally recognized that IDU-IE requires antibiotics and often requires cardiac surgery, most patients do not receive addiction treatment which substantially increases their risk of recurrent IDU-IE from drug use recurrence. Accordingly, a multidisciplinary approach integrating addiction treatment may benefit patients with IDU-IE. We describe the format and structure of a team called the Multidisciplinary Endocarditis Evaluation Team (MEET) whose purpose is to optimize, formalize, and standardize the care of patients with IDUIE. Given the complexity of IDU-IE, MEET is comprised of addiction medicine, anesthesia, cardiology, cardiac surgery, infectious disease, case management, nursing, and social work. MEET strived to be acceptable to patients and families to support their preferences and values. MEET focused treatment of IDU-IE on the patient’s medical and surgical needs with attention to the patients’ underlying substance use disorder as an essential component.