International Interprofessional Collaborative Office Rounds (iiCOR): Addressing Children's Developmental, Behavioral,...

Area of Science:

• Global child health
• Developmental and behavioral health
• Mental health care services

Background:

• Developmental, behavioral, and emotional issues are prevalent in children globally, contributing significantly to the disease burden in low- and middle-income countries.
• A shortage of skilled professionals worldwide limits access to essential developmental and mental health care for affected children.
• Collaborative Office Rounds offer a non-hierarchical, peer-mentoring model for interprofessional teams to discuss clinical cases.

Purpose of the Study:

• To improve the knowledge and skills of child health professionals in developmental and mental health care, regardless of resource setting.
• To provide support for trainees and clinicians managing complex pediatric developmental and mental health conditions.
• To promote best practices in the diagnosis and management of these conditions globally.

Main Methods:

• The International Interprofessional Collaborative Office Rounds program involved five nodes across eight countries, with interprofessional teams meeting monthly via videoconferencing.
• Participants (N=141) represented 13 different disciplines.
• Qualitative analysis of 51 complex cases and post-program surveys were used to evaluate the initiative's first two years.

Main Results:

• Over half of the discussed cases (N=26) involved children with autism or autistic traits.
• Common themes included social determinants of health (N=31), psychiatric co-morbidity (N=31), and aggression/self-injury (N=25).
• After one year, 87% (N=41) of participants felt their expectations were met, highlighting the program's effectiveness in addressing continuing educational needs and diverse approaches.

Conclusions:

• Regular interprofessional meetings using distance-learning technology facilitate the sharing of challenges and best practices across different global resource settings.
• The International Interprofessional Collaborative Office Rounds model shows promise for increasing the workforce capacity to address worldwide developmental, behavioral, and emotional conditions.
• Further systematic studies are recommended to validate and expand upon these findings.