Clinical collaboration
{{use mdy dates|date=December 2020}}
{{use American English|date=December 2020}}
Clinical collaboration is the collaboration of organizations, teams of professionals, or small groups of individual professionals, each having skills, equipment or information that will complement what their partner has, all seeking to be more effective. Choosing one's partner is important, and has been described as "similar to the accreditation process of Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations."{{cite web
|url=https://www.healthcareglobal.com/medical-devices-and-pharma/best-alternative-health-care-mand
|title=Is This the Best Alternative to Health Care M&A?
|date=April 3, 2020}} "CHOP Hub For Clinical Collaboration Arrives on the Skyline in University City, West Philadelphia" was a 2020 headline describing a coming 19-story medical building.{{cite news
|url=https://phillyyimby.com/2020/10/chop-hub-for-clinical-collaboration-begins-to-protrude-in-university-city-west-philadelphia.html
|title=CHOP Hub For Clinical Collaboration Arrives on the Skyline in University City, West Philadelphia
|quote=The building has an anticipated completion date of 2023.
|author=Koloski, Thomas |date=October 23, 2020}}
While clinical collaboration, which has been described as a "culture"{{cite web
|url=https://www.wolterskluwer.com/en/expert-insights/creating-a-culture-of-collaboration-to-elevate-infection-prevention-and-antimicrobial-stewardship
|title=Creating a Culture of Collaboration to Elevate Infection Prevention and Microbial Stewardship
|date=June 1, 2017}} rather than as something to be purchased,{{cite journal
|url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1386505603000376
|title=Collaboration: a new IT-service
|year=2003 |author=M. Bruun-Rasmussen
|journal=International Journal of Medical Informatics
|series=MIE 2002 Special Issue
|volume=70
|issue=2
|pages=205–214
|doi=10.1016/S1386-5056(03)00037-6
|pmid=12909171
|quote=clinical collaboration is associated with the shared clinical context to provide a record of ..|url-access=subscription
}} is not a "full-asset merger,"{{cite news |newspaper=Crain's New York Business
|url=https://www.crainsnewyork.com/health-pulse/maimonides-community-hospital-ink-affiliation-deal
|title=Maimonides, Community Hospital ink deal for affiliation deal
|author1=Jennifer Henderson |author2=Shuan Sim |date=December 10, 2020}} a clinical collaboration does aid the financial goal of
"to maximize the value of" a franchise. It also gives more eyes to aid in reducing risk.{{cite web
|url=http://www.ascomwireless.com/pdf/PL-000154-Datasheet-ClinicalServices.pdf
|quote=Our clinical collaboration is essential to risk mitigation during the implementation of
|title=Ascom clinical services collaboration each step of the way}}{{cite web
|url=https://reflexion.com/reflexion-combination-therapy-crossing-the-divide-with-biology-guided-radiotherapy-to-treat-the-untreatable
|quote=The goal of RefleXion and Merck & Co's clinical collaboration is to establish whether treating multiple tumors with BgRT is safe
|title=RefleXion Combination Therapy: Crossing the Divide|date=June 24, 2020
}}
Overview
Clinical collaboration is not "one size fits all",{{cite web |website=computer.org (IEEE Computer Society)
|url=https://www.computer.org/csdl/proceedings-article/cbms/2014/4435a386/12OmNyUWR1o
|title=Patients in Transition: E-Messages as a Tool for Collaboration
|author=L. Melby |year=2014}} and its areas of potential effectiveness include medical/pharmaceutical research, healthcare/doctors and nurses, emergency room care, and ambulatory and ambulance services. One potential obstacle they all face is anti-trust law,{{cite news |publisher=Reuters
|url=https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/us/Documents/life-sciences-health-care/us-lshc-provider-collaborativ.pdf
|title=Incyte Corporation Profile}}{{cite web
|url=https://copehealthsolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Deliver-the-Right-Care-Support-Physicians-and-Further-Strategic-Objectives-During-COVID-19-Crisis.pdf
|title=How to Deliver the Right Care, Support Physicians
|quote=(CMS) and the federal antitrust enforcement agencies have relaxed regulations and streamlined oversight to promote procompetitive clinical collaboration}} but proof of concept exists: partnership contract renewals.{{cite news
|newspaper=BizJournals.com (Philadelphia)
|url=https://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/news/2019/10/14/penn-medicine-mercy-health-to-establish-heart.html
|title=Penn Medicine, Mercy Health to establish heart surgery program in Delaware County
|quote=Penn Medicine, Virtua renew clinical collaboration for another three years
|author=John George |date=October 14, 2019}}
Other concepts affecting healthcare delivery are "clinical affiliation"{{cite news |newspaper=The New York Times
|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/08/nyregion/island-s-hospitals-corporate-vs-community.html
|title=Island's Hospitals: Corporate vs. Community
|date=April 8, 2001}}{{cite news |newspaper=The New York Times
|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/11/28/nyregion/the-view-from-white-plains-a-partnership-for-continued-cancer.html
|title=The View From: White Plains; A Partnership
|quote=This is our first clinical affiliation with
|date=November 28, 1993}} and "non-clinical collaboration."{{cite web
|url=http://www.ruh.nhs.uk/membership/governors/2017_12/documents/20.pdf
|title=Report to
|quote=We have now formed a non-clinical collaboration with Wiltshire Council
|date=December 5, 2017}}{{cite web |website=BayStateHealth.org
|url=https://www.baystatehealth.org/news/2017/04/employee-profile-bridget-gunn
|title=Employee Profile Bridget Gunn
|quote=the Non-Clinical Collaboration Award |date=April 18, 2017}}
Medical research
Cancer research is an example where clinical collaboration can advance state of the art.{{cite press release
|url=https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20191219005123/en/Exelixis-Enters-into-a-Clinical-Collaboration-for-Three-Phase-3-Combination-Trials-for-Patients-with-Advanced-Solid-Tumors
|title=Exelixis Enters into a Clinical Collaboration for Three Phase 3 Combination Trials for Patients with Advanced Solid Tumors
|date=December 19, 2019}}
=Pharmaceutical research=
Major pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer{{cite news |newspaper=Wall Street Journal (WSJ)
|url=https://www.wsj.com/market-data/quotes/SWTX/company-people/executive-profile/181368039
|title=SWTX Company Profile & Executives}} and Bristol-Myers Squibb have arranged clinical collaborations with companies such as NeoImmuneTech,{{cite news |publisher=Reuters
|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/brief-neoimmunetech-announces-clinical-c/brief-neoimmunetech-announces-clinical-collaboration-with-bristol-myers-squibb-to-evaluate-nt-i7-in-combination-with-nivolumab-idUSFWN2BX0RV
|title=BRIEF-Neoimmunetech Announces Clinical Collaboration
|date=April 9, 2020}} Checkmate Pharmaceuticals and Kitov{{cite news |newspaper=The New York Times
|url=https://markets.on.nytimes.com/research/stocks/news/press_release.asp?docTag=202007020834PRIMZONEFULLFEED7954341%26feedID=600%26press_symbol=93199287
|title=Kitov Pharma Issues CEO Shareholder Letter}} for testing and evaluating the effectiveness of combinations of existing medicines. If the tested combination attains regulatory approval, "it opens up new patient populations for each company’s drug."{{cite web
|url=https://rhythmofbusiness.com/insights.php?pid=78&p=&cat_id=&search=
|title=How to Tame an Octopus: Managing the Proliferation of Clinical Collaborations
|date=October 15, 2018}}
Healthcare
Clinical collaboration between facilities permits sharing the availability of specialists and high tech equipment, often involving specialized communication links to facilitate data sharing.{{cite web
|url=https://www.jivesoftware.com/resource-library/whitepapers/connecting-clinicians-is-critical-trends-driving-future-healthcare-collaboration
|title=Healthcare Industry Trends}}
Issues that must be prearranged include patient data privacy and security, including HIPAA compliance.{{cite web
|url=https://www.cybernetman.com/blog/tech-for-clinical-collaboration/
|title=What Tech is Needed for Effective Clinical Collaboration Systems?
|date=January 7, 2020}} Some of this is software apps that go beyond standard data sharing using more "aware" software.{{cite web
|url=https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/cancer-center-taps-clinical-collaboration-tech-connect-caregivers-including-competitors
|title=Cancer center taps clinical collaboration tech to connect caregivers - including competitors
|author=Bill Siwicki |date=March 27, 2018}}
Rural areas need it to provide service,{{cite web
|url=https://www.cdwg.com/content/cdwg/en/industries/healthcare-technology/rural-healthcare.html
|title=Solving IT Challenges for Rural Healthcare}} and small healthcare providers in large areas need it to survive. In these seemingly asymmetrical arrangements, there is an avoidable potential for domination for which due diligence and preplanning and proper preparation is needed.{{cite journal |journal=Yale Law School
|url=https://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/fss_papers/4970
|title=From Empire to Empathy? Clinical Collaborations Between the Global North and the Global South
|quote= neo-colonialism that shapes interactions between
|author1=Daniel Bonilla |author2=James J. Silk |year=2013}}
=Doctors and nurses=
Clinical collaboration, properly implemented, must be seamless to be most effective.{{cite web
|url=https://www.utsouthwestern.edu/education/medical-school/departments/physical-medicine/x-ntbrms
|quote=who work together seamlessly
|title=North Texas Burn Rehabilitation Model System}} This includes overlapping staffing and concurrent shifts of doctors with varying specialties and focus, along with nurses and paramedics. The goal is not new, and the situation has improved with use of technology
that enables going beyond paper-based records.{{cite journal
|title=Exploration of the process of interprofessional collaboration among nurses and physicians in Iran
|author1=Mousa Mahdizadeh |author2=Abbas Heydari |author3=Hossein Karimi Moonaghi
|journal=Electronic Physician
|date=June 25, 2017|volume=9
|issue=6
|pages=4616–4624
|doi=10.19082/4616
|pmid=28848638
|pmc=5557143
|url=https://halohealth.com/resources/industry-insights/collaboration-starts-with-the-executive-team
|title=Collaboration Starts with the Executive Team
|date=June 19, 2018
|quote=to help provide better patient care}}
Contrast to affiliation
Even though there may be financial benefits to the arrangement, it contrasts with financial affiliation, where profit is the driving motive. An example is where a research project is incurring major expenditures with cost writeoffs: "cost-sharing clinical collaboration" enables "building value" that goes beyond making money to "encouraging activity" that is high risk but, if successful in the long run, will save lives. The medical director of the Mayo Clinic Care Network referred to "due diligence" in an article about Clinical Collaboration as an alternative to health care mergers and acquisitions.{{cite magazine |magazine=Harvard Business Review (HBR)
|url=https://hbr.org/2014/12/an-alternative-to-health-care-ma
|title=An Alternative to Health Care M&A
A well implemented medical facility {{visible anchor|clinical affiliation}} agreement "maintains each hospital’s independence in governance, budgeting, labor agreements and will not move or remove any local services."{{cite news |newspaper=Watertown Daily Times
|url=https://www.nny360.com/news/hospital-affiliation-invite-at-issue/article_020da0f2-2426-5b8a-8f76-a46b77203583.html
|title=Hospital affiliation invite at issue
|author=Jen Jackson |date=December 15, 2017}}