The Interdisciplinary eHealth Team: Chronic Care for the Future

Abstract

An interdisciplinary clinical team is a consistent grouping of people from relevant clinical disciplines, ideally inclusive of the patient, whose interactions are guided by specific team functions and processes to achieve team-defined favorable patient outcomes. Teamwork supported by properly designed eHealth applications could help create more effective systems of care for chronic disease. Given its synchronous and asynchronous communication capacity and information-gathering and -sharing capabilities, the Internet is a logical platform for supporting interdisciplinary clinical teamwork. Research is needed to better understand how interdisciplinary eHealth team members can work together in everyday practice and to guide the development of effective and efficient eHealth software applications to support greater clinical teamwork.

Multidisciplinarity, interdisciplinarity, and transdisciplinarity in health research, services, education and policy: 2. Promotors, barriers, and strategies of enhancement

“…11 But as Clark points out, "putting people together in groups representing many disciplines does not necessarily guarantee the development of a shared understanding". 12 …”

“…11 The Internet and email are an effective communication system that serves to bring experts from different disciplines and from different parts of the world to work together. For example, a report that summarizes the experience of chronic disease surveillance efforts in North, Central and South Americas, prepared by a multiple disciplinary team of 20 members from governments, universities and non-government organizations from nine countries, was completed entirely through email.…”

“…Through "now we both know a fact that only one of us knew before", minds interact, and new ideas emerge. 11 …”

“…11 Selection of the disciplines and the team members to represent the selected disciplines can make or break, or change the direction of the research process. The right people can work together to overcome barriers, so it is important to get the right people together.…”

Interdisciplinary palliative care teams : insights and experiences of chaplain interns and social work interns.

“…Palliative care offers a unique approach by integrating the needs of the family into the care of the patient (Gelfman, Meier, & Morrison, 2008). The interdisciplinary palliative care team considers the patient and the patient's family to be the unit of care, as well as part of the team, and the patient and family are essential to help develop the goals of care (Cummings, 1998;Wiecha & Pollard, 2004).…”