Looking beyond the pandemic
What remains to be seen is whether or not the progress in establishing and fostering interdisciplinary approaches that researchers and healthcare workers have made throughout the pandemic will persist beyond this public health crisis.
Some challenges remain. For example, although collaborative research has been intensifying during the pandemic — particularly in terms of vaccine development and distribution — there is still a sense that equitable collaboration, wherein all research partners are actively listened to and receive due credit, is often lacking.
A comment feature that appeared in Nature Human BehaviourTrusted Source in March 2021 emphasized the continued inequitability in research settings, noting that it hampers progress and ultimately harms global collaboration.
The authors write that although “[n]umerous academic organizations and departments of anthropology, psychology, and related fields reliant on cross-cultural data production have now declared commitments to combat racism […] and improve [the] representation of minoritized groups among their faculty and student body,” these commitments are often shallow, failing to address deep-rooted systemic inequities.
“Often missing from this discussion among high income country-based researchers, however, is the promotion of equitable collaboration in cross-cultural research with national universities and research [centers] in low and middle income countries,” they go on to note.
In terms of collaborations regarding clinical and mental health care, Milligan told MNT that future improvements should focus more on holistic approaches to treatment.
He also suggested that tackling structural racism and ingrained biases in healthcare remains crucial to building a true spirit of collaboration and to providing adequate care.
“Three areas we would like to see [a] more explicit focus on are: the need for truly interdisciplinary approaches, [the] requisite of seeing the whole person (not an isolated diagnosis), and [a] more explicit focus on addressing inequalities across all targets.”
Yet Milligan was hopeful. “Interdisciplin ary working is here to stay, as it should be,” he told us. “When experts from across the spectrum of experience share views and knowledge, it gives us a more rounded approach to research.”
To achieve this “rounded approach,” he explained, it is important to include not just scientists and clinicians in the conversation about health research.
Those on the receiving end of care are also experts, thanks to their lived experience of ill health. Their unique expertise, Milligan added, can transform research and care for the better.
“The next step is to ensure that experts by lived experience are involved in the co-production of research so that their vital contributions are not missed out on.”
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