Collaborative management health care involves strengthening and supporting self-care among people with long-term illnesses while assuring that effective medical, preventive, and health maintenance treatments occur. In collaborative management, it is important for patients, family members, and health care providers to understand each other's roles and responsibilities as they work toward a shared goal of improving the patient's health. Examples of self-care behaviors include reading books or other materials about relevant health care topics, exercising, following a low-fat diet, seeing a doctor on a regular basis, and making lifestyle changes. It is crucial that doctors, case managers, nurses, pharmacists, and other medical professionals understand the challenges that patients face when attempting to incorporate these self-care behaviors into their lives. Currently, there are few collaborative management programs that specifically address pediatric long-term illness and even fewer programs that identify doctors as the primary medical professional responsible for encouraging behavior change.