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A growing body of work has shown that interprofessional practice and education (IPE) can improve learners’ perceptions of interprofessional practice (IPP) and enhance collaborative knowledge and skills. In contrast, establishing a direct cause-and-effect relationship between IPE and patient, population and system outcomes has proven more difficult – not unlike other health professional educational interventions.
 

This was the task of the recent IOM consensus study committee charged with analyzing the available data and information from around the world to determine the best methods for measuring the impact of IPE on such issues as patient safety, provider and patient satisfaction, quality of care, community health outcomes and cost savings. Their findings are detailed in an April 2015 report.
 

During this presentation, the chair of the consensus committee, Malcolm Cox, outlined key findings from the report and discussed actions that interprofessional stakeholders can take to better measure the impact of IPE on intermediate and distal outcomes.  Conclusions and recommendations from the report were discussed as well as:
 

• Key findings on establishing a direct cause-and-effect relationship between IPE and patient, population and system outcomes;
• The present status of the literature and how the evidence-base could be strengthened; and
• Views from the IOM Study Chair on how best to apply the report’s messages to IPE evaluations and studies.