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The purpose of this paper is to describe the process used to initiate research capacity building in a community of practice (CoP) focused on the research and evaluation of inter-professional education and collaboration. This CoP, composed of members from across Canada, is a committee of the Canadian Interprofessional Health Collaborative (CIHC), a national collaborative that aims to advance inter-professional education and collaboration in healthcare. The committee mapped recommendations that emerged from a number of CIHC reports onto a research capacity building framework.

It is claimed that an interprofessional approach to health care aims to provide optimal client care, reduce duplication of services, address gaps in service delivery and prevent adverse consequences to patients. Hence there is widespread international interest in interprofessional education in undergraduate programs. However, after employment in the Australian health care workforce, there is limited opportunity for this.

As part of the Health Resources and Services Administration Patient Safety and Clinical Pharmacy Services Collaborative (PSPC), an interprofessional model with medication therapy management documentation and outcomes tracking tools (MTM-DOTT) is established to improve health care access and quality for underserved populations. Despite limitations, there have been positive outcomes and national recognitions.

PubMed URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22864492