A game theoretical framework to identify collaborative behaviour in interactions between allied health and generalist...

Allied health professionals often are not structurally involved in interprofessional collaboration with generalist primary care professionals for geriatric syndromes. Previously identified facilitators and barriers for interprofessional collaboration are predominantly outside the professionals' sphere of influence. We aimed to identify (in)effective behavioral patterns in interprofessional collaboration between allied health and generalist primary care professionals in older adult care to provide a perspective of action for all professionals to improve the effectiveness of collaboration. We used a combined inductive and deductive approach to thematic analysis on the transcripts of 24 semi-structured individual interviews. To characterize collaborative situations between Dutch allied health and other primary care professionals, we organized open codes into a game theoretical framework. Identified ineffective behavior patterns included using power to overrule allied health expertise, a lack of initiating collaboration, and go-alone behavior in conflicts. Initiating behavior, making expertise more explicit, involving a third-party professional, and compromising were identified as effective behavior. Balancing power and expertise and engaging third-party professionals in situations of conflicting preferences, expertise, or power levels potentially improves generalist-allied health collaboration. The game theoretical framework proved useful in analyzing collaborative interactions and could be an effective strategy to change behavior.