The Health Care Transitions Journal: Carpe diem!

We are so proud to introduce our new journal, Health Care Transitions and excited to welcome colleagues who work in this scientific field. This new open-access Journal, Health Care Transitions is designed to facilitate dissemination of work on a broad range of topics pertaining to the practice and science of the field of health care transition and to advance it’s body of literature. The title itself, Health Care Transitions reflects a new conceptualization of the meaning of health care transition. As this field rapidly expands, new knowledge and insights emerge leading to practice and research advances that enlarge our understanding of the biopsychosocial variables that influence the adolescent and emerging adult’s successful transfer of care, acquisition of self-management competences. As in any field of practice and research, new and unforeseen evidence-based approaches to care emerge that contribute to improved health outcomes for adolescents, emerging adults, and their families.

The plural form of health care transition was purposefully chosen as adolescents and emerging adults go through varied transitions during this period of their lives. These transitions include not only the transfer of care, but also the developmental transitions associated with child/adolescent/emerging adult development, social relationships, education, employment, living accommodations and community living to name a few. All of these transitions intersect with one another and influence the pathway of these individuals forward and progress along their lifespan. A reductionist view of health care transition focusing solely on the transfer of care is insufficient and incomplete as transfer of care does not occur in a vacuum. Successful outcomes are contingent on a myriad of factors that impact this event and process as it is nested within a broader sociocultural model of care influences that include the individual and family strengths and challenges, social networks and supports, community resources and access to health care services. In essence, the framework of health care transition aligns with the model developed by the International and Interdisciplinary Health Care Transition Research Consortium, which envisioned the health care transition process as embodying a comprehensive approach to care that incorporates the individual, family, social support, environment, and health system domains.¹ This Journal endorses the World Health Organization’s broad definition of health: Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.²

We anticipate articles published in this Journal will broaden the understanding of the practice complexities associated with health care transitions. The historic and current delimited focus on the transfer of care has overlooked, in part, the exploration of the antecedents contributory to successful transfer of care and transition to adulthood. Research is needed to explore the multivariate factors that contribute to successful outcomes not only associated with the transfer of care but with emerging adulthood and beyond that include facilitating coordinated primary and specialty adult-focused health care, achievement of the self-management competencies needed to independently conduct condition-related tasks, and importantly, acquisition of the developmental competencies of adulthood. Relatively scant attention has been directed to the aftermath of transfer of care and health care transition from the team of interdisciplinary colleagues who provide adult-focused health services and providers from other transition and adult-focused service systems as well.

Currently, most manuscripts published on health care transitions are from pediatric and adolescent specialty providers; however, as this field continues to advance, the science and practice will expand to include knowledge and understanding on adult biopsychosocial long-term outcomes. Integration of practice experience and expertise from adult-focused providers is essential to fully understand the consequences of long-term health care transition planning. It is well known that the psychosocial parameters associated long-term adult outcomes lag behind those associated with improved rates of survival. As models of care improve to address the comprehensive health needs of all adolescents and emerging adults including those with disabilities and special health care needs, it is hoped that these discoveries will contribute to reducing the disparities in physical and psychosocial outcomes.

We welcome review manuscripts that address a wide range of topics pertaining to the health care transitions from authors worldwide, as learning from the efforts of colleagues around the globe, will make important contributions to improve understanding of service model development. We look also look forward to receiving manuscripts from interdisciplinary colleagues, who bring forth fresh perspectives to this field of practice and research. More importantly, we are interested in hearing directly from consumers, families, and advocates as they have key voices that need to be heard.

Despite the recent growth in literature contributions, evidence in the area of health care transition is in the early stages of development. We recognize that the field of practice and research will emerge to reveal new discoveries that will impact patients and family outcomes. The practice model of the future will look not be focused solely on the transfer of care, as the complexities associated with health care transitions will be more fully acknowledged and addressed. We look forward to publishing articles that provide perspectives of interdisciplinary and interagency colleagues to enhance and improve our understanding of the health care transitions phenomenon. Most importantly and ultimately, the mission of Health Care Transitions is to serve as a scientific and scholarly pipeline for disseminating work that contribute to the body of literature and improves health outcomes for all adolescents, including those with long-term conditions, and their families. Carpe diem!.