Integration, Coordination and Multidisciplinary Care: What can These Approaches Offer to Australian Primary Health Care?

Australia's population is ageing and the consequential burden of chronic disease increasingly challenges the health system. This has raised interest in, and awareness of, approaches built on multidisciplinary teams and integrated and coordinated care in managing the complex care needs of patient groups such as the chronically ill or frail aged. A systematic investigation of the literature relating to these approaches provided the opportunity to explore the meaning of these terms and their potential application and relevance to the Australian primary health care setting. Five systematic reviews of a sentinel condition and an exemplar approach to coordinated and multidisciplinary care were completed. Common learnings from the individual reviews were identified. The literature suggests that approaches encouraging a coordinated and multidisciplinary plan of care for individual patients and/or particular populations may improve a variety of outcomes. There are many methodological considerations in conducting reviews of complex interventions and in assessing their applicability to the Australian health system

Multidisciplinary care planning in the primary care management of completed stroke: a systematic review

Background: Chronic disease management requires input from multiple health professionals, both specialist and primary care providers. This study sought to assess the impact of co-ordinated multidisciplinary care in primary care, represented by the delivery of formal care planning by primary care teams or shared across primary-secondary teams, on outcomes in stroke, relative to usual care

Multidisciplinary care planning in the primary care management of completed stroke: a systematic review-0

<p><b>Copyright information:</b></p><p>Taken from "Multidisciplinary care planning in the primary care management of completed stroke: a systematic review"</p><p>http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2296/9/44</p><p>BMC Family Practice 2008;9():44-44.</p><p>Published online 5 Aug 2008</p><p>PMCID:PMC2518150.</p><p></p