Interdisciplinary network care collaboration in Parkinson's disease: a baseline evaluation in Germany

Carina Lummer; Carsten Eggers; Andreas Becker; Fenja Demandt; Tobias Warnecke; Parkinson Netzwerke Deutschland e.V.

doi:10.1186/s42466-023-00300-5

Interdisciplinary network care collaboration in Parkinson's disease: a baseline evaluation in Germany

Neurol Res Pract. 2024 Jan 11;6(1):5. doi: 10.1186/s42466-023-00300-5.

Authors

Carina Lummer¹, Carsten Eggers², Andreas Becker³, Fenja Demandt⁴, Tobias Warnecke⁵; Parkinson Netzwerke Deutschland e.V.

Affiliations

¹ OptiMedis AG, Buchardstraße 17, 20095, Hamburg, Germany.
² Department of Neurology, Knappschaftskrankenhaus Bottrop GmbH - Academic Teaching Hospital of the University of Duisburg-Essen, Osterfelder Str. 157, 46242, Bottrop, Germany.
³ Department of Neurology, SRH-Kurpfalzkrankenhaus Heidelberg - Academic Teaching Hospital of the University of Heidelberg, Bonhoefferstrasse 5, 69123, Heidelberg, Germany.
⁴ Institute for Applied Health Services Research, Schiffbauerdamm 12, 10117, Berlin, Germany.
⁵ Department of Neurology and Neurorehabilitation, Klinikum Osnabrück - Academic Teaching Hospital of the University of Münster, Am Finkenhügel 1, 49076, Osnabrück, Germany. tobias.warnecke@klinikum-os.de.

Abstract

Background: The strengthening of interdisciplinary care collaboration in Parkinson's disease is taking on increasing importance in daily medical routine. Therefore, care providers worldwide are organizing themselves in disease-specific regional network structures. However, the existing networks are heterogeneous, and the driving key players are yet unidentified.

Objectives: To systematically identify key factors of the composition of health care professionals, who are initially interested in the development of a Parkinson network for interdisciplinary care collaboration, their motivation, and expectations, we conducted a basic evaluation in three different German regions covering a total number of 23,405 people with Parkinson's.

Methods: A specially developed semi-open questionnaire focusing on socio-demographic information, ways of contact, interdisciplinary collaboration, and connectedness was used. Statistical analyses were performed based on a predesigned codebook.

Results: The most crucial professions were outpatient therapists (physio-, occupational-, speech therapists) (36.7%), average case load of 10.1 patients/3 months and inpatient movement disorder specialists (21.1%), average case load of 197.4 patients/3 months. Before implementation of PD networks, 48.9% of outpatient therapists did not have any contact with neurologists. 58.9% of caregivers considered the current frequency of collaboration to be insufficient. The lack of political support as well as a lack of time were identified as main hurdles to increased collaboration.

Conclusion: The identified driving forces in strengthened care collaboration are assigned to different healthcare sectors. This makes networks which provide tools for specialized education and interdisciplinary, cross-sectoral communication indispensable. For an areawide rollout, a rethinking of political frameworks towards network care is strongly necessary.

Keywords: Baseline evaluation; Care collaboration; Communication; Interdisciplinary network; Parkinson’s disease.