Intended for healthcare professionals

Rapid response to:

Editorials

The neglected psychological aspects of skin disease

BMJ 2017; 358 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.j3208 (Published 06 July 2017) Cite this as: BMJ 2017;358:j3208

Rapid Response:

Interprofessional Management and its impact on skin manifestations

The present scenario, health care delivery, is a complex one and it mainly requires the collaboration of team work of different people from various disciplines. Various new terms have emerged in health care delivery like integrated, holistic, multidisciplinary, Interprofessional, etc., with the prime intention of delivering quality health to the community. Interprofessional practice is complex one involving multiple professions.

According to Hall et. al, ‘Interprofessional’ practice includes a different group of people from different domains of the professions, working together and communicating with each other (1).

The Interprofessional team in the context of dermatology comprises different professions from different disciplines as well as occupations.

In dermatology the main disciplines involved in delivering health care solutions for skin manifestations, the stakeholders, must communicate with each other and have sound relation to delivering optimum care to the suffering community or end users (2). In general the team comprises sociologists, psychiatrists, software engineers, economists, marketing people, experts from complementary and alternative system of medicine, etc. -- for example, a team of doctors from contemporary and traditional system of medicine, and scientists developing software for Vitiligo for better diagnosis and treatment (3). In this way, we can deliver better health care in dermatology and help the sufferers.

References:

1 .Hall, P., & Weaver, L. Interdisciplinary education and teamwork: a long and winding road. Medical Education, 2001.35(9), 867 - 875.

2. Greiner, Ann C., and Elisa Knebel. "Institute of Medicine." Health Professions Education: A Bridge to Quality (2003): 225-230.

3. https://iad.org.in

Competing interests: No competing interests

19 July 2017
Kamath Madhusudhana
Associate Professor.
Division of Ayurveda, Center for Integrative Medicine and Research (CIMR), Manipal University, Manipal 576 104