Resource Center

A new report from the Institute of Medicine (IOM) examines the methods needed to measure the impact that interprofessional education (IPE) has on collaborative practice and health and system outcomes.

Today, the National Center and Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative (PCPCC) released the first chapter in a five-part podcast series based on the PCPCC publication “Progress and Promise: Profiles in Interprofessional Health Training to Deliver Patient-Centered Primary Care,” which explored advanced primary care practices in exemplary interprofessional education teaching programs.

Since its launch in January 2014, the measurement instruments collection has been one of the most viewed resources on the National Center website. While interest and use of the measurement tools has grown, so have questions about how to accurately measure the effectiveness of interprofessional education and collaborative practice (IPECP).

Joint Accreditation for Interprofessional Continuing Education™ – a collaboration of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME®), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) – announced a partnership with the National Center to expand the reach of interprofessional continuing education (IPCE).

The National Center recently launched the “community moderator” program, an initiative that gives users of the Resource Exchange and Online Community more opportunities to interact with each other – and recognized leaders in interprofessional education and collaborative practice (IPECP).

It’s hard to believe we’re already several weeks into 2015! Sometimes when you’re deep into planning what’s next, it’s easy to lose sight of all the great things that happened during the past year. As we’ve been mapping out upcoming activities and initiatives, we thought it was a perfect opportunity to reflect on some of the partnerships, programs and people that made 2014 so special.

So, in case you missed it, here are a few things that had us talking.

Our guest blogger is Jill Thistlethwaite, MBBS, MMEd, PhD, FRCGP, FRACGP, a Fulbright scholar, health professions education consultant and family medicine physician from Australia (but originally from the UK). She recently spent four months at the National Center exploring evaluation and research methods for IPECP and currently serves as a community moderator.

The National Center recently unveiled Amina in the Nexus, a collection of free, online resources to help our partners explore the concept of the “Nexus,” by sharing the vision of interprofessional education and collaborative practice (IPECP) more broadly.

The resources focus on Amina, a mother and Somali immigrant with diabetes, who is part of a new model of care – one that includes her community, a team of practitioners, faculty and students working and learning together to keep her healthy.

The Resource Exchange is growing daily, with 1,132 registered contributors and 1,060 items now available in the collection. That's a good thing, but we've heard from the community that trying to sort through that much content all at once can be challenging. To improve usability, we've spent the past several weeks making improvements to the site:

Mark O’Leary has been named the deputy director and chief operating officer for the National Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education. In this role, O’Leary will oversee many of the center’s programs and manage day-to-day operations.