Increasing clinical, community, and patient-centered health research for preventing and managing multimorbidity

The report “Multiple Chronic Conditions: A Strategic Framework,” which was developed by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HSS), has identified as one of the key goals for improving health and the provision of healthcare for people with multiple chronic conditions “to increase clinical, community and patient-centered research.” In their linked commentary of this special journal issue, Parekh and Goodman identify and consider the potential impact of a number of related research initiatives supported by the National Institutes of Health and the Agency for Health Research and Quality, particularly focusing on two very specific areas: behavioral medicine and secondary analyses of available datasets. In this paper, I comment on both documents and discuss the opportunities offered by the current approaches and highlight related research needs; in particular, the need for an improved and expanded conceptual model of healthcare for people with multimorbidity, and the need for further exploration of the use of multimorbidity-relevant outcomes as part of usual clinical practice. Journal of Comorbidity 2013;3:41–44