ICFHS research on the use of multi-disciplinary teams in primary care around the world

A research team, led by the International Centre for Future Health Systems (ICFHS) Senior Research Fellow Dr Shona Bates, with colleagues Dr Jialing Lin, Associate Professor Michael Wright, Professor Michael Kidd AO, and Dr Luke Allen from the University of Oxford, undertook a scoping review to build our understanding of the use of multi-disciplinary teams in primary care. This work was prompted by the recommendations of the Strengthening Medicare Taskforce Report that included encouraging team-based multidisciplinary care based on the assumption that multi-disciplinary team care improves the quality of primary care.

While there is increasing promotion and application of multidisciplinary teams in primary care globally, and increasing research in this field, our  findings showed: (1) huge variation in the purpose and models used - ranging from providing team care to providing alternative care; (2) mixed outcomes in relation to quality of care, driven by contextual, policy, organisational, professional and patient factors; (3) mixed outcomes in access and continuity of care. We found that while there may be common preconditions, effective implementation of multidisciplinary team care was likely to be goal and context specific. The implementation of multidisciplinary team care requires careful planning and implementation to ensure quality of care is not compromised.

The research is available open access to all - available here.

Recent article in The Medical Republic available here.

Recent article published by Croakey Health Media available here.