title: The complex patient: A concept clarification.
abstract: Over the last decade, the concept of the "complex patient" has not only been more widely used in multidisciplinary healthcare teams and across various healthcare disciplines, but it has also become more vacuous in meaning. The uptake of the concept of the "complex patient" spans across disciplines, such as medicine, nursing, and social work, with no consistent definition. We review the chronological evolution of this concept and its surrogate terms, namely "comorbidity," "multimorbidity," "polypathology," "dual diagnosis," and "multiple chronic conditions." Drawing on key principles of concept clarification, we highlight disciplinary usage in the literature published between 2005 and 2015 in health sciences, attending to overlaps and revealing nuances of the complex patient concept. Finally, we discuss the implications of this concept for practice, research, and theory.
authors.affiliation: Department of Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada.
authors.forename: Eli
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Manning
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Marilou
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gagnon
mesh_terms: D015897:Comorbidity; D003210:Concept Formation; D006801:Humans; D062072:Patient Acuity; D064890:Social Determinants of Health; D009626:Terminology as Topic
keywords: comorbidity; complex patient; complexity; concept clarification; multidisciplinary health care