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Word‐oriented databases of potential relevance to the multidisciplinary field of emergency management were identified by the University of Illinois, Information Retrieval Research Laboratory under contract to the United States Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). This article is an extension and outgrowth of that contract. It analyzes forty databases for relevance to emergency management by searching each database using an emergency management subject profile, printing a random sample of citations to determine percent of false drops, and ranking the databases according to number of relevant citations. Bradford's law of scatter is shown to apply to this multidisciplinary field, using databases instead of journals and citations instead of articles. No one database provides more than 19% of the literature, however, illustrating that the literature in the field is widely scattered throughout databases. These findings can help in the choice of the specific databases containing emergency management citations and in the determination of how many databases need to be searched in order to retrieve a given percentage of the literature. A companion article in this issue of Online Review — ‘Evaluation of database coverage: a comparison of two methodologies,’ explains the subject profile evaluation method employed in this project and compares it to another coverage evaluation technique.

This article considers the issue of programme specification in the context of a faculty‐based multidisciplinary programme. It argues for the creation and articulation of a multidisciplinary programme specification for the BA Arts and Social Sciences Pass Degree (Levels 1‐3) and subject‐based programme specification for each subject within the degree programme covering all four Levels in the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework. It describes the structure of a multidisciplinary programme specification and considers the issues it will raise.

The aim of this paper is to share the details of a multidisciplinary approach, which includes occupational therapy, and to review the factors that should be considered in the evaluation and treatment of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) who are excessively selective in their food choices. Issues in this area are complex and often related to several complementary domains (medical, nutritional, psychosocial, sensorimotor, etc.). However, feeding disorders are frequently assessed and treated from a single discipline and important issues are missed or confounded.

A team of experienced clinicians in the field of paediatric feeding disorders gathered the knowledge and experience they acquired from working with individuals with ASD as well as with individuals with other neurodevelopmental diagnosis. A review of current literature in paediatric feeding disorders was used to document and explicate the multifactorial nature of feeding disorders in children with ASD and justify the need for a multidisciplinary approach to issues in this area.

Feeding disorders in children with ASD are linked to multiple sensory, motor, behavioural, nutritional and gastrointestinal comorbidities. A multidisciplinary approach is needed and increasingly recommended. However, multidisciplinary teams, specialised in the care of children with ASD and feeding issues, continue to be difficult to locate and access for families. The authors sought to highlight the signs of feeding problems in children with ASD from different domains and share a model of a multidisciplinary approach that can lead to more successful interventions.

The detailed description of the domains linked to feeding issues and the clinical descriptions provided throughout the paper create a roadmap for other clinicians aiming to set up similar teams.

This service evaluation study aimed to demonstrate the impact of implementing ward‐based multidisciplinary therapy input on an acute psychiatric ward in a London hospital for a six‐month period. The results indicated a high level of patient engagement with the project and referrals facilitated for patients following discharge. A reduction of incidents on the ward was reported over the project period compared to the previous year and there was less use of containment measures by staff by the end of the project. Recommendations are made for service improvement.

This paper aims to investigate the role of multidisciplinary course requirements in shaping student attitudes toward sustainability and education for sustainable development. Previous research indicates that students conceptualize sustainability based on their academic discipline; thus, this research investigates whether there is a difference in student attitudes toward sustainability at Grenfell Campus, Memorial University of Newfoundland, where students are encouraged to cross the borders of their academic disciplines.

This research reports on the findings from a mixed-methods study to assess the impact of program requirements on student attitudes toward sustainability and education for sustainable development at Grenfell Campus, Memorial University of Newfoundland. In phase one, an anonymous survey was administered to students regarding their perceptions and attitudes toward sustainability and education for sustainable development. The survey yielded 100 usable responses. Phase 2 consisted of a series of 10 semi-structured expert interviews with key faculty and staff at Grenfell Campus and a representative from the City of Corner Brook, which gave further insights regarding sustainability programming and campus culture.

Contrary to previous research, the results of this research indicate that the School of Study does not have a statistically significant impact on student attitudes toward sustainability. This may be attributed to Grenfell Campus’s Breadth of Knowledge requirement within the School of Arts and Social Science and the School of Science and the Environment, which requires that students take elective courses from a broad range of subject matter to develop their holistic awareness of social, cultural, scientific and political issues.

The results of this research indicate that students who are exposed to broad multidisciplinary requirements may be more likely to have positive attitudes toward sustainability than students who focus on a single discipline.

A limited number of studies investigate the impact of core program requirements on student attitudes toward sustainability. This paper promotes an effective way of raising sustainability-literate young people/citizens in a Canadian higher education context.

The article examines the implications of programme specification for the distinctive multidisciplinary curricular environment of the Open University. It concludes that, for multidisciplinary programmes, specification is likely to focus on generic outcomes that relate to institutional level descriptors aligned to descriptors in the national qualification framework. These will be connected to more detailed course specifications that describe the curriculum building‐blocks. Generic outcome statements will need to reflect concepts of level, progression, diversity, balance, flexibility, integrity and coherence through an individualised programme that is constructed by the student. It concludes that the adoption of a framework of key skills outcomes benchmarked against the national standards can provide the basis for institutional descriptors against which multidisciplinary programmes can be benchmarked.

Our lived experiences are complex, dynamic and increasingly connected locally and globally through virtual realities that call for an evolution and responsiveness from the field of architecture education. To ensure future built environments are designed to nurture healing and health, this paper aims to address a critical need in architecture education to integrate knowledge of health and social-behavioral disciplines in students' course work. The authors will outline the process of preparing a new multidisciplinary course on health and the built environment (HBE) at the School of Architecture and Planning at Morgan State University in Baltimore, USA, as an effort to challenge the barriers of discipline-specific pathways to learning in the field of architecture.

The central question is how to develop an active learning pedagogy to foster a multidisciplinary learning environment focused on the “practice” (how to) of human-design-oriented approaches to improve the capability of built and natural environments to promote health and healing. The course intentionally centered on the real-life experiences of students to ground their new understanding of health and well-being fields. The course proposal went through an extensive peer-review process of reviewers from the National Institute of Health (NIH) and other departments at Morgan State University to ensure a balance between health- and architecture-specific curricula with a transdisciplinary approach to understanding complex health issues.

This paper shows the effectiveness of tools and techniques applied in the course to challenge architectural students to integrate various health and behavior perspectives in their designs and to apply health and healing principals to their current and future design projects.

While there are courses in American universities that offer a traditional introduction to health concerns related to the built environment, there is limited focus on the perspective of the design field approach to improve health and healing outcomes.

The purpose of this paper is to report on the Multidisciplinary Sustainability Education Project (MSEP) as a framework using sustainability-themed education modules to introduce students to the need for multidisciplinary approaches to solving twenty-first-century problems while retaining traditional course strengths and content.

The MSEP uses sustainability-themed education models and a multidisciplinary approach to link courses across disciplines. Modules are identified by an overarching question with activities designed to address the overarching question from course-specific perspectives, resulting in students writing short technical reports summarizing their results. Students then read and evaluate technical reports from other classes, and complete a summary activity designed to connect perspectives from different disciplines.

The multi-method assessment identified no loss or gain in discipline-specific learning; increased understanding about the characteristics of twenty-first-century problems, in particular those related to sustainability; and increased students ' favorable perceptions of introductory calculus. Assessment of increased understanding of how different disciplines can work together to understand complex problems was difficult to measure due to limitations of a project-developed assessment instrument.

This paper contributes to undergraduate sustainability education by describing a framework for connecting courses using sustainability-themed modules. By implementing an asynchronous manner where courses use materials from the project Web site and contribute materials to the Web site after implementing a module, it is easy to incorporate a module into existing courses, any educational institution’s existing structure and across institutions. The framework’s flexible design allows new courses from any discipline to connect to a module, allowing for multidisciplinary connections to grow over time.

Various attempts have been made to understand and resolve the enduring lack of cohesiveness of multidisciplinary teams (MDTs), their dysfunctional service delivery and the feelings of distress among some of the professionals who work in them. Distortions in forensic MDTs have sometimes compromised service delivery and effective risk management. Several public inquiries relating to high‐profile incidents in forensic mental health have noted the role of dysfunctional MDTs. This paper describes the philosophy, structure, functions and achievements of a forensic community MDT in Wellington, New Zealand. It explains a model of care that is adaptable, comprehensive, effective and evidence‐based. It highlights the role of the extended MDT and embedded cultural units from which care professionals work together, share a common philosophy of care and tailor their care to the needs of the individuals or populations they serve.

Addresses what “management” means in a multidisciplinary professional team. Looks at one particular profession – psychiatry – in which multidisciplinary teams are common and often problematic. Considers some of the issues that arise in the management of such teams, and particularly the tendency for competing professionals to wish to colonize each others′ area of operation. Proposes that the key to managing such teams is to have a clear role of problem definition within the team; someone needs to ensure that the most suitable care is provided for each patient, even if that care is outside their own competence. This activity is similar to that of senior management in other sectors, where problem definition tends to be associated with senior management. The management of professionals in multidisciplinary teams requires someone to be given a role as “wise generalist”.