The interdisciplinary eHealth team: chronic care for the future

Area of Science:

• Clinical Informatics
• Healthcare Management
• Patient Care

Background:

• Interdisciplinary clinical teams are crucial for effective patient care, especially in chronic disease management.
• eHealth applications offer potential to enhance communication and coordination within these teams.
• Current understanding of optimizing eHealth for interdisciplinary teamwork in daily practice is limited.

Purpose of the Study:

• To define the components of an interdisciplinary clinical team.
• To explore the potential of eHealth applications in supporting interdisciplinary teamwork for chronic disease care.
• To identify research needs for developing effective eHealth tools for clinical teams.

Main Methods:

• Literature review on interdisciplinary teamwork and eHealth.
• Conceptual framework development for eHealth-supported clinical teams.
• Analysis of communication and information-sharing capabilities of the Internet.

Main Results:

• An interdisciplinary clinical team involves consistent grouping of professionals guided by specific functions and processes.
• eHealth applications, leveraging the Internet's capabilities, can facilitate teamwork.
• The study highlights a need for research into practical application and software development.

Conclusions:

• Well-designed eHealth applications are essential for effective interdisciplinary clinical teamwork.
• Further research should focus on understanding team dynamics and guiding eHealth software development.
• Optimizing eHealth support can lead to more effective chronic disease care systems.