Premium
The impact of chronic illness: partnerships with other healthcare professionals
Author(s) -
Brooks Peter M
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
medical journal of australia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.904
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1326-5377
pISSN - 0025-729X
DOI - 10.5694/j.1326-5377.2003.tb05534.x
Subject(s) - health professionals , multidisciplinary approach , health care , workforce , chronic disease , medicine , nursing , multidisciplinary team , disease , medical education , chronic care , healthcare delivery , family medicine , political science , law , pathology
Healthcare workforce shortfalls require a rethinking of models for delivering care to people with chronic disease. Chronic disease needs to be managed by a multiskilled team of healthcare professionals with specialist input. Education at undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate levels needs to prepare healthcare professionals for this new paradigm. Some tasks currently seen only as part of a doctor's purview could be performed by other trained professionals to allow doctors to concentrate on more appropriate activities. We need to explore new collaborations to deliver multidisciplinary healthcare for chronic disease and evaluate these for patient outcomes and cost effectiveness.