P. Blumberg et al., DESCRIBING THE STRUCTURE AND CONTENT OF INTERDISCIPLINARY COLLABORATION IN AN EDUCATIONAL CENTER ON AGING AND HEALTH, Educational gerontology, 23(7), 1997, pp. 609-629
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.