Christmas: Buena Vista Social Club & Multidisciplinary, Interdisciplinary, Interprofessional and Transdisciplinary

A welcome gift for Christmas^# was Wim Wenders' and Producer Ry Cooder's film - Buena Vista Social Club. The music, story, sound and images are a real treat. Several of the artists are sadly no longer with us, what is clear is the role that music can give to people in their senior years. The companionship and musical narrative that was rekindled in the late 90s is brilliantly captured and just in time: for the rest of us. The way these musicians and the technicians fuse, improvise, learn together, complement and contrast, and inspire each other is brilliant.

Whilst watching and listening I've realised that for the intro to the conceptual space notes I need to grasp details about the cussed customers - multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, interprofessional and transdisciplinary.

Checking on current and forthcoming books I'm seeking a review copy to inform my musings:

The sequence in the title is not accidental but roughly equates to the descending frequency of use in health and social care. The most common (multidisciplinary) and least (transdisciplinary) are not dissimilar in needing to be defined and explored. Talk of multidisciplinary in theory, practice and management – notably policy – is so frequent that the meaning of the concept is diminished. On the other hand transdisciplinary is so infrequently used that the meaning is blurred. This is compounded by the noisy signature produced by the proximity of interdisciplinary and interprofessional.

This quartet are like musical disciplines and genres that can potentially grate on the ear and yet also make possible some amazing productions. Maybe that process is what goes into World Music? What in turn needs to go into global health?

^#Another much appreciated present is the Steve Jobs biog.