In recent years there has been a growing emphasis on education that crosses disciplinary boundaries and teaches students to work on teams. In the health sciences, this is due to an increased awareness that collaborative care is a reality for students after they graduate from any number of health science programs. Interprofessional education (IPE), as defined by the World Health Organization and adopted by the Interprofessional Education Collaborative,

"occurs when students from two or more professions learn about, from, and with each other to enable effective collaboration and improve health outcomes."

In January 2016, the University of Michigan’s Center for Interprofessional Education launched a new Interprofessional Leadership Fellows program. This program was developed so that health science professionals with a strong interest in interprofessional education and practice might become change agents for IPE efforts on campus and beyond.  The sixteen IPE fellows making up the inaugural cohort represent the following U-M health science schools:

• Dentistry
• Kinesiology
• Medicine
• Nursing
• Pharmacy
• Public Health
• Social Work
• School of Health Professions and Studies (Flint)

During their 18-month fellowship, they will attend one of several offerings of a “Train-the-Trainer” faculty development program developed through a 2014 Josiah Macy Jr. grant. The fellows will be further supported by a CRLT faculty learning community in which they will develop their projects, learn about frameworks for change, discuss literature related to nationwide IPE efforts, and prepare to become mentors for future cohorts. For more information, including a list of the fellows, please visit the announcement on the Interprofessional Education website.

(Photo credit: University of Michigan Interprofessional Education)