Exploring patterns of collaboration among professionals, organisations, patients and communities that meet complex challenges and promote patient well-being

Abstract

Managing the well-being of a super-ageing society requires effective collaboration and communication between professionals, organisations, patients and families. Alongside education and training, the importance of a comprehensive understanding of interprofessional competencies cannot be understated. Professor Junji Haruta is building on his personal experience as a physician dealing with family illnesses to conduct research that promotes a holistic approach to medicine. He believes primary care professionals will play a crucial role in providing optimal care for the elderly population in communities for the next 20 years. Haruta is developing resources, including models and theories linked to education on complex issues in primary care, to promote effective interprofessional education. These can be utilised by individuals, universities, organisations and the wider community as a comprehensive system and facilitate the development of solutions to the increasingly complex challenges associated with healthcare, promoting individual and societal well-being. Haruta employs empirical generalisation, which explores relationships between two or more variables observed across different conditions and involves collecting findings from various cases and specific contexts to identify patterns. In one study, he and his collaborators investigated the learning process of medical students in an online community diagnostics programme using a realist approach, which involves theory-driven evaluation, to identify patterns of learning within this programme using the Context (C), Mechanism (M) and Outcome (O) framework. They found that the students acquired knowledge about communities through four distinct learning patterns, and the community diagnosis programme facilitated a deeper understanding of communities through the application of discovery learning, variation theory and cognitive flexibility theory.