Facilitating interdisciplinary collaboration to tackle complex problems in health care: report from an exploratory workshop

Abstract

Complex problems in health care are complex issues that resist solution via traditional perspectives and are better tackled through interdisciplinary, systems-level approaches. Interdisciplinary approaches can be difficult to implement in assembled groups of health-care practitioners and researchers from diverse disciplines. We developed a set of four methods intended to explicitly facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration toward the end goal of solving complex problems in health care. This article describes the results of a workshop designed to explore these four methods: (1) deep dives, (2) an explicitly interdisciplinary framework of problem solving and problematizing, (3) exercises from improv theater, and (4) rapid sketching and visualization. Meeting attendees indicated that the workshop provided them with insights and new ways to facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration. These methods show promise for bridging disciplinary differences, opening possibilities for new perspectives, and encouraging more creative and disciplinary-spanning approaches to complex problems in health care.

Keywords:

• interdisciplinary
• collaboration
• multidisciplinary
• transdisciplinary
• complex problems
• complexity

^†Ryan Bardsley, I.D., Massachusetts General Hospital/CIMIT, Simulation Systems ManagerElizabeth Bird, M.D., Hasbro Children’s Hospital/RI, Patient Safety Lead and Pediatric HospitalistBarbara Blakeney, R.N., Massachusetts General Hospital, The Center for Innovations in Care DeliveryChristopher Bull, Ph.D., Engineering, Brown University, Sr. Lecturer, Sr. EngineerJames Burgess, Ph.D., Economics, Boston University School of Public Health, Health System EconomistStephen Goetschius, M.F.A., RISD design studentDavid Kaber, Ph.D., Engineering, NCSU Professor of Industrial Engineering and ErgonomicsMichael Lye, I.D., Rhode Island, Instructor RISDMatt Maleska, I.D., Pitney Bowes, Senior Design StrategistHeather McGowan, I.D., Philadelphia University, Assistant ProvostKathleen O’Donnell, RISD design studentOlivia Rodgers, RISD design studentArun Shanbag, Ph.D., M.B.A., MGH Innovation Support CenterNathan Siegel, M.D., Rhode Island, Alpert Medical School of Brown UniversityJames E. Stahl, M.D., C.M., M.P.H., Massachusetts General Hospital, MGH Institute for Technology Assessment, Dept of Medicine,Holly O. Witteman, Ph.D., Program in Health Communication and Decision Making, Center for Bioethics and Social Sciences in Medicine, University of MichiganBrian J. Zikmund-Fisher, Ph.D., Health Behavior and Health Education and Risk Science Center, School of Public Health, University of Michigan

^†Ryan Bardsley, I.D., Massachusetts General Hospital/CIMIT, Simulation Systems ManagerElizabeth Bird, M.D., Hasbro Children’s Hospital/RI, Patient Safety Lead and Pediatric HospitalistBarbara Blakeney, R.N., Massachusetts General Hospital, The Center for Innovations in Care DeliveryChristopher Bull, Ph.D., Engineering, Brown University, Sr. Lecturer, Sr. EngineerJames Burgess, Ph.D., Economics, Boston University School of Public Health, Health System EconomistStephen Goetschius, M.F.A., RISD design studentDavid Kaber, Ph.D., Engineering, NCSU Professor of Industrial Engineering and ErgonomicsMichael Lye, I.D., Rhode Island, Instructor RISDMatt Maleska, I.D., Pitney Bowes, Senior Design StrategistHeather McGowan, I.D., Philadelphia University, Assistant ProvostKathleen O’Donnell, RISD design studentOlivia Rodgers, RISD design studentArun Shanbag, Ph.D., M.B.A., MGH Innovation Support CenterNathan Siegel, M.D., Rhode Island, Alpert Medical School of Brown UniversityJames E. Stahl, M.D., C.M., M.P.H., Massachusetts General Hospital, MGH Institute for Technology Assessment, Dept of Medicine,Holly O. Witteman, Ph.D., Program in Health Communication and Decision Making, Center for Bioethics and Social Sciences in Medicine, University of MichiganBrian J. Zikmund-Fisher, Ph.D., Health Behavior and Health Education and Risk Science Center, School of Public Health, University of Michigan

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank members of the Interdisciplinary Solutions in Health Care Group for their participation and insights, as well as Sarah Whyte and others in the Health Care, Technology and Place strategic research and training initiative at the University of Toronto for earlier comments on the problem solving and problematizing interdisciplinary framework. The exploratory workshop described in this article was funded by the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University. The funder had no role in study design, collection, analysis and interpretation of data, writing of the report, nor in the decision to submit the article for publication.