Efficacy of interprofessionnality : evidence and challenges.

Skillmix is often proposed as a measure to address the growing needs of an aging population with its expected increase in chronic diseases. This article reports on a symposium on interprofessional collaboration which took place in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. Reviews of the literature on interprofessional collaboration show evidence in favor of the effectiveness of having interactions between physicians, nurses, pharmacists and physiotherapists. A critical analysis of different forms of coordinated care within family medicine supports the effectiveness of these approaches. However, these approaches now need to be tested in Switzerland.