Shared Medical Appointments and Group Consultations

Dear Colleagues,

There is a significant healthcare workforce shortage, which has made it difficult for many communities to access timely healthcare. Healthcare must be tailored to the needs of the community, be delivered locally, prioritise long-term conditions, and improve general health and wellbeing. Care should support positive health behaviours (including diet and exercise), which require time and multi-disciplinary input. Alternatives to traditional 1:1 consultations are needed to assist in addressing these issues. Shared medical appointments constitute an evidence-based approach that delivers comprehensive care, increases access, is cost-effective, and is associated with better outcomes, including high patient and clinician satisfaction. Shared medical appointments and group consultations are ideally suited to people with long-term conditions and allow for attending to “each patient's unique medical needs individually, but in a supportive group setting where all can interact, listen and learn”. Increasing the evidence base around these and other care models will provide options for those seeking alternatives to traditional healthcare delivery, particularly in lower-resourced areas.

This Special Issue aims to publish original studies, case reports, and short communications to provide healthcare professionals with evidence-based recommendations regarding the evaluation, structure, and implementation of shared medical appointments, group consultations, and other non-traditional models of patient care.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Systematic reviews and meta-analyses of the shared medical appointment approach
• Comparative studies of different consultation models
• Implementation studies, including quantitative and/or qualitative analyses
• Case studies
• ……

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Karen Dwyer
Guest Editor

Dr. Kate Kloot
Guest Editor Assistant

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Healthcare is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• shared medical appointment
• group consultation
• models of care
• chronic disease management
• socio-economic burden of chronic care