DESCRIBING THE STRUCTURE AND CONTENT OF INTERDISCIPLINARY COLLABORATION IN AN EDUCATIONAL CENTER ON AGING AND HEALTH

Innovative methods for exploring the nature and extent of interdiscipl inary collaboration in health and aging are increasingly needed as hig her education moves toward fostering more cooperation. among formerly isolated health disciplines. This article describes the development of a new practical method for mapping the structural elements and unders tanding the content of interdisciplinary collaboration in a center des igned specifically to support this kind of activity. How to study who collaborates with wham and the settings in which these activities take place are explored. Information is provided to assist others in condu cting similar research to document the structural nature of their coll aboration. The Educational Centre for Aging and Health (Hamilton, Onta rio, Canada) described in this article was very successful in fosterin g interdisciplinary activities, and the contextual characteristics tha t promote this success are identified.