The patient and multidisciplinary collaboration in primary care

Abstract

Multidisciplinary care has been proposed as a potential strategy to address the rising challenges of modern health issues. Despite the importance of patient involvement in health care, multidisciplinary research to date has predominately focused on health care professionals and strategies to increase collaboration. There remains limited focus on the patient and their willingness or ability to participate in multidisciplinary processes. This thesis aims to gain a deeper understanding of patients’ potential role in multidisciplinary care. Quantitative and qualitative methods, along with the theoretical framework of social network theory were used. This thesis explored the health experiences, perceptions and attitudes of people with asthma towards multidisciplinary care. This included the investigation of patients’ health networks in asthma, specifically the composition, characteristics and dynamic nature of relationships, as well as their impact on multidisciplinary collaboration. The work presented in this thesis provides new insights for health care professionals and health policy makers to move beyond an exclusive health provider focus in multidisciplinary services. Patients are an important member of multidisciplinary health teams and this series of studies provide a step forward to better integrate patients into multidisciplinary care delivery.