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CIPE > Why Interprofessional Eduction?

Why Interprofessional Education?

The Institute of Medicine’s report:  Crossing the Quality Chasm:  A New Health System for the 21st Century; 2001,describes a chasm in our country’s healthcare system as a result of complexity in health care, changes in the public’s health care needs and challenges in the health care delivery system.  Recommendations in that report include restructuring health professions education toward interprofessional practice.  A subsequent IOM report in 2003, Health Professions Education: A Bridge to Quality, states a new vision for health professions education in which “All health professionals should be educated to deliver patient-centered care as members of an interdisciplinary team, emphasizing evidence-based practice, quality improvement approaches and informatics.” History at the University of Minnesota

Interprofessional education for health professions students has been discussed at the University of Minnesota for many years.  One report to the regents in April of 1967 references changes in the education program to include “closer integration of all health science programs, in recognition of the ‘team approach’ to comprehensive health care.”  For more history, see the message from Barbara Brandt, Assistant Vice President for Education of the Academic Health Center.

The United States is not the only country to promote interprofessional education.  Health professions educators worldwide have endorsed interprofessional education as a way to improve the quality of health care.  International interprofessional education initiatives include the following:

• The United Kingdom Centre for the Advancement of Interprofessional Education, founded in 1987, promotes and develops interprofessional education as a way of improving collaboration between practitioners and organizations, and supports the integration of health and social care in local communities. Its focus is on ways of enabling professions and occupations in the community, education institutions and the workplace to learn and work together, foster mutual respect,overcome barriers to collaboration and engender joint action.
• The Health Council of Canada Report in 2005 stated, “Health care delivery models of the future clearly envision teams of health care providers working together to meet patient needs.”
• “Health science education needs to be transformed by integrating parts of what are now separate academic programs and by a focus on team building” Health Renewal in Canada: Accelerating Change, Health Council of Canada (page 36-37, January 2005)
• The Canadian International Health Collaborative is the hub for Canadian interprofessional activity. As a Canada-wide initiative, the CIHC developed a start-up structure that ensures all interprofessional projects across the country have a shared venue for exchanging ideas and promising practices related to interprofessional education, collaborative practice and patient-centered care.
• The first American – Canadian Dialogue on Interprofessional Education occurred in Minneapolis in October, 2007 during the Collaboration Across Borders Conference. 
• The fourth annual All Together Better Health Conference on interprofessional education is in Stockholm, Sweden, in 2008.