Interprofessional Approaches for the Management of Chronic Diseases

Chronic diseases represent the leading causes of death and disability worldwide, with a subsequent enormous socioeconomic burden. The clinical management of these conditions often requires a multidisciplinary approach to treat the complex symptoms related to the disease and the associated problems. Different healthcare systems have been experimenting with interprofessional collaboration to enhance professional effectiveness and quality of practice among professionals, in an environment often constrained by resources. The optimum use of resources is made possible by interprofessional collaboration, which is described as an integrative cooperation of many health professions in different health disciplines, including medicine, nursing, physical therapy, psychology, and occupational therapy. It has been demonstrated that interprofessional care improves patient outcomes by lowering the rate of preventable adverse drug reactions, morbidity, and mortality, and optimising prescription dosages. However, despite the increasing evidence on the positive impact of integrative multidisciplinary programs for people with chronic diseases, there are still gaps and challenges in how to translate evidence-based knowledge into well-informed clinical practice.

The aim of this Research Topic is to explore the current status and future direction of interprofessional care teams. We are open to receiving articles that explore interprofessional collaboration in the context of various clinical diagnoses, including; chronic pain, cancer, neurological ailments, psychiatric problems, or cardiorespiratory conditions. Also, the effects of new health technologies on interprofessional collaboration, such as virtual reality, mobile health apps, or telecare.

We welcome the submission of randomized controlled trials, longitudinal or cross-sectional observational studies, systematic reviews with meta-analysis, and overviews of systematic reviews, although we are open to include other research designs that can contribute to an improved understanding of the current status of interprofessional collaboration in primary care.