School of Public Health, Faculty of Community and Health Sciences, University of the Western Cape, Cape Town.
Afr J Prim Health Care Fam Med. 2024 Jul 31;16(1):e1-e11. doi: 10.4102/phcfm.v16i1.4430.
Collaboration between traditional health practitioners (THPs) and biomedical health practitioners (BHPs) is highly recommended in catering for pluralistic healthcare users. Little is known about bidirectional collaborations at healthcare service provision level.
To map global evidence on collaboration attempts between THPs and BHPs between January 1978 and August 2023.
We followed the Arksey and O'Malley framework in conducting this scoping review. Two reviewers independently screened articles for eligibility. A descriptive numerical and content analysis was performed on ATLAS.ti 22. A narrative summary of the findings was reported using the PRISMAScR guideline.
Of the 8404 screened studies, 10 studies from 12 articles were included in the final review. Studies came from America (n = 5), Africa (n = 2), China (n = 2) and New Zealand (n = 1). Eight studies reported case studies of bidirectional collaboration programmes, while two studies reported on experimental research. All collaborations occurred within biomedical healthcare facilities. Collaboration often entailed activities such as relationship building, training of all practitioners, coordinated meetings, cross-referrals, treatment plan discussions and joint health promotion activities.
This study confirmed that practitioner-level collaborations within healthcare are few and sparse. More work is needed to move policy on integration of the two systems into implementation. There is a need to conduct more research and document emerging collaborations.Contribution: This research illuminates the contextual challenges associated with sustaining collaborations. The data would be important in informing areas that need strengthening in the work towards integration of THPs and BHPs.
传统医疗从业者（THP）与生物医学健康从业者（BHP）之间的合作在满足多元化医疗保健用户需求方面受到高度推崇。然而，关于医疗服务提供层面上双向合作的了解甚少。
本研究旨在绘制 1978 年 1 月至 2023 年 8 月期间全球关于 THP 和 BHP 之间合作尝试的证据。
我们遵循 Arksey 和 O'Malley 框架进行了这项范围综述。两位评审员独立筛选符合条件的文章。使用 ATLAS.ti 22 对数据进行描述性的数值和内容分析。根据 PRISMA-ScR 指南，以叙述性总结报告研究结果。
在筛选出的 8404 项研究中，最终综述纳入了 10 项研究（来自 12 篇文章）。研究来自美国（n=5）、非洲（n=2）、中国（n=2）和新西兰（n=1）。8 项研究报告了双向合作计划的案例研究，而 2 项研究报告了实验研究。所有合作均发生在生物医学医疗设施内。合作通常涉及建立关系、对所有从业者进行培训、协调会议、交叉转诊、治疗计划讨论以及联合健康促进活动等活动。
本研究证实，医疗保健领域内从业者层面的合作很少且稀疏。需要更多的工作将整合这两个系统的政策推进到实施阶段。有必要开展更多的研究并记录新兴合作。
这项研究揭示了维持合作所面临的背景挑战。这些数据对于告知 THP 和 BHP 整合工作中需要加强的领域非常重要。
