Challenges and opportunities associated with multiprofessional collaboration

Despite impressive health gains in almost all countries over the last few decades, the challenges facing the public health workforce are great, and range from infectious disease control to the impact of global environmental changes. There are several reasons for the universal poor state of public health practice. The nature of many aspects of public health practice presents a difficulty when government attention and resources are concentrated on health care. Responsibility for health is increasingly located at the personal level as national authorities attempt to reduce their costs. Methods: A systematic review of the literature has been carried out in order to provide a transparent overview of the articles searched. Articles were searched electronically in English and come from a variety of sources. The search for articles is conducted in PubMed, Jstore, BMJ, Medline and secondary resources on the topic are done. Results: Power struggles within society, for example the power of experienced over inexperienced, are a barrier to inter-professional working. New developments in health care such as generic skill-mixing approach, and a drive toward true patient-centred-care, using patient power to govern the priorities of inter-professional teams, may be the way to overcome these barriers. If real power were given to patients in the form of an expert patient board responsible for the governance of an inter-professional care group, then true autonomy might exist.. Conclusion: The findings show that public health partnerships at the state level share many challenges and opportunities of health-based and promotional partnerships. Cooperation at the state level, however, includes more attention to organizational alliances, coordination of institutional change, and strategic responses to policy change