Medical Professional Associations and the Challenge of Interdisciplinary Practice

There is a movement in Canada calling for health care to be provided by interdisciplinary (collaborative) health teams. There is progression toward realizing the goals of this movement in Ontario, where collaborative care teams are forming in medical practices (Family Health Teams). Rigid professional boundaries and traditional hierarchies of professions threaten to impede the implementation and functioning of collaborative care teams and the rigid boundaries (e.g., those protecting scopes of practice) must be relaxed for collaborative care teams to work effectively. While progress is being made toward overcoming barriers at the level of local practice, educational and legal system levels, and there is acknowledgement that professional associations and regulatory bodies potentially play a role in promoting interdisciplinary care, how professional boundaries will be relaxed at the level of professional associations and regulatory bodies is unclear. This project will examine how medical professional associations view the role of the medical profession in the provision of health care in collaborative teams and how the functioning of these teams may be improved.