Integration, Coordination and Multidisciplinary Care: A Systematic Review
Project Status
Completed
Chief Investigators
Gawaine Powell Davies, David Perkins, Mark Harris, Martin Roland
Associate Investigators
Julie McDonald, Judy Proudfoot
Other Team Members
Karen Larson
Rationale
Integration and coordination are often invisible tasks within the health system that come to notice when the arrangements for coordination fail to support coherent health care in areas where this matters. The complexity of the health system means that integration and coordination will always be problematic in one area or another. New trends in health care need or provision will often give rise to new problems in integration and coordination.
The types of arrangement that are effective for integration and coordination are highly context dependent, depending in part upon the health care issues being addressed, expectations of the public and the characteristics of the system within which they operate.
Aims
To define:
(a) integration, coordination and multidisciplinary care within the Australian health care system and other comparable health care systems;
(b) strategies that have been employed to improve integration, coordination and multidisciplinary care within primary health care, health and health related services.
To determine: Which strategies have been shown to be effective under what circumstances, and the cost of effective strategies.
Design and Method
Narrative Systematic Review
Key Publications
Report: http://www.anu.edu.au/aphcri/Domain/MultidisciplinaryTeams/Final_1_Powell-Davies.pdf
Paper: Powell Davies G, Williams AM, Larsen K, Perkins D, Roland M, Harris M. Coordinating primary health care: an analysis of the outcomes of a systematic review. MJA 2008; 188 (8 Suppl): S65-S68