Multimorbidity and Knowledge Architectures: An Interdisciplinary Global Health Collaboration

As people live longer, the coexistence of multiple conditions in one individual - 'multimorbidity' - becomes more common. Yet, research, teaching and care systems remain organised along single-disease and single-organ-system lines, which presents an increasingly important global health challenge. Medical anthropologists are ideally equipped to explicate the problems underlying these fragmented structures, which are social, political and historical. I propose a study to investigate these problems and to work with biomedical scientists to produce a new framework for acquiring knowledge about multimorbidity.

I will gather data using observational fieldwork and interviews with representatives of different specialities in research and care institutions in the UK and Zimbabwe. Further, I will organise collaborative workshops to analyse findings and produce the proposed framework. Impact. By opening up new pathways beyond single-disease and single-organ approaches, this research will open new pathways to influence research, policy and the care of those with multimorbidity.