WORKING FROM UPSTREAM TO IMPROVE HEALTH-CARE - THE IHI INTERDISCIPLINARY PROFESSIONAL-EDUCATION COLLABORATIVE

Background: Recognizing the need to find new models for educating heal th professionals, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) initi ated the Interdisciplinary Professional Education Collaborative in Apr il 1994. The goal of the Collaborative is to improve health care by wo rking from upstream, to address the health professions workforce chang es demanded by the need to deliver better care at a lower cost. With s upport and advice from IHI and others, faculty leaders in health profe ssions education from the disciplines of medicine, nursing, and health administration framed a vision of the I future in which ''health prof essions education has evolved into an integrated teaching/learning env ironment in which health professionals are working together across dis cipline boundaries, using the best knowledge for improvement to contin uously improve health care.'' This article describes the first year of the three-year project, Summary: The 1994-1995 pilot year of the Coll aborative involved more than 60 learners and 50 faculty members, acros s multiple disciplines. At each of the four sites, education was integ rated with efforts to improve health care delivery. Education-oriented outcomes include assessment of student learning (applied knowledge an d skills) and program evaluation (student and faculty feedback on the effect of the project on community-based experiential learning sites). Even at this early stage, there is evidence of change in participatin g institutions. The Collaborative in now planning how to increase the number of students and faculty involved in such a way that a deeper un derstanding of how to prepare new health professionals to improve heal th care may be determined.