[Potential Benchmarks for Successful Interdisciplinary Collaboration Projects in Germany: A Systematic Review].

Area of Science:

• Health Services Research
• Primary Care Medicine
• Pharmaceutical Care

Background:

• Collaboration between general practitioners (GPs) and community pharmacists (CPs) is crucial for safe and effective patient care.
• Current collaboration models in primary care are not standardized and exhibit significant variability.
• There is a need to identify successful benchmarks for interprofessional collaboration in ambulatory care.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review existing projects on professional collaboration between GPs and CPs in ambulatory care in Germany.
• To identify promising approaches and successful benchmarks for future collaboration initiatives.
• To provide insights for standardizing and improving GP-CP collaboration.

Main Methods:

• Systematic literature search conducted according to PRISMA guidelines.
• Identification of articles specifically focusing on professional collaboration between GPs and pharmacists.
• Analysis of retrieved articles to identify key success factors for collaborative projects.

Main Results:

• Six premises for successful cooperation projects were identified: mutual acquaintance of GPs and CPs (I), joint project planning (II), regular meetings for experience sharing and evaluation (III), ensuring technical feasibility (IV), provision of incentives (V), and integration into existing healthcare structures (VI).
• A limited number of studies have been published in scientific journals.
• Lack of standardized assessment tools for collaboration perception and impact on daily work.

Conclusions:

• Successful GP-CP collaboration in daily practice is often built on personal contact and long-term relationships.
• Collaborative teaching sessions at the university level may foster early mutual understanding.
• There is a significant need for standardized evaluation tools to enable comparability across different collaboration studies.