Resource Center

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 is spending four months at the National Center exploring evaluation and research methods for IPECP.

The field of interprofessional education and collaborative practice lost a good friend and great colleague on October 17. Maralynne Mitcham, PhD, beloved professor of occupational therapy and assistant dean, College of Health Professions at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC), passed away after a long illness.

I’ll never forget the day in 2012 when I got “the call.” I was sitting still in the Twin Cities traffic when a text from a friend tipped me off that “rumor had it” the University of Minnesota was going to be named the home of the Coordinating Center for Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice. The notice of grant award was in my email by the time I got home.

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 is spending four months at the National Center exploring evaluation and research methods for IPECP.

National Center has announced that The University of Kansas will be the next site for its Nexus Innovations Incubator that tests new models and methods of integrating practice and education. The incubator, which now has sites in ten states, focuses on applied testing of interprofessional strategies with the potential to:

• Improve the quality of experience for people, families, communities, and learners

• Share responsibility for achieving health outcomes and improving education

Some time ago, Shelley Cohen Konrad asked me to visit the University of New England to present to a Macy Foundation-sponsored summit focused on the Nexus of integrated practice and education. Within a comprehensive curriculum plan, Shelley and her colleagues have created an innovative community-based IPE program and a range of opportunities for students to learn teamwork skills. By hosting the summit, they envision a closer relationship with Maine’s practice community to strengthen their already robust IPE program.

Through funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, National Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education will be hosting two international scholars in its Global Leadership Consultancies in Interprofessional Practice, Education and Research.

This month Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science officially dedicated the DeWitt C. Baldwin Institute for Interprofessional Education, honoring Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education Scholar in Residence and a pioneer of interprofessional education, DeWitt C. Baldwin, MD.

National Center’s Data Repository is up, running and being loaded with information on interprofessional practice and education from the Nexus Innovation Incubator Network sites. To guide and advise on the Data Repository’s development, National Center has named a new advisory council to help create a system with a philosophy similar to “Turbo Tax” — where the data and structure allow questions to be asked and answered simply, easily, and accurately so answers can be turned into effective decisions.