UNE’s Clinical Interprofessional Team on the move nationally

On Tuesday August 22, 2017, several people from the University of New England’s Clinical Interprofessional Team presented a one-and-a-half hour session at the National Summit for Interprofessional Practice and Education, hosted by the federally-funded National Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education at the University of Minnesota.

Dora Anne Mills, M.D., M.P.H., FAAP, Toho Soma, M.P.H., and Melanie Caldwell, M.S., presented a session called, “Lessons Learned from Scaling Clinical Interprofessional Sites from One to 12 Sites Across Maine.” They also provided consultations and shared resources at a kiosk. During the session they shared challenges, lessons learned and resources during their several years of developing clinical interprofessional clerkships that involve UNE osteopathic medical students working alongside other UNE health professions students across Maine, with a focus on rural health centers providing care for the underserved. The Clinical Interprofessional Team, based in UNE’s Center for Excellence in Health Innovation, works collaboratively with UNE colleges and clinical affiliates, with support from the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation. This last academic year, 165 UNE health professions students, including 86 osteopathic medical students, participated in interprofessional clerkships of at least several weeks in 12 clinical sites across Maine. In 2017 and 2018, 15 clinical sites are expected to participate.

The presentation at the National Summit was one of several recent national presentations by the Center in Health Innovation’s Clinical Interprofessional Team on UNE’s successful efforts to scale up interprofessional education (IPE) and practice learning activities in clinical sites in order to assure UNE health professions students have these opportunities and graduate team-ready. For instance, over the last few weeks Mills delivered: a keynote presentation at the Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC) Institute in Washington DC; a breakout session at the annual meeting of the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine (AACOM) in Baltimore, Maryland; and a webinar sponsored by the Interprofessional Education Collaborative on UNE’s clinical IPE efforts.

Additionally, team members from UNE’s clinical IPE staff and faculty, including Toho Soma, Judith Metcalf, Ruth Dufresne and Ruby Spicer, along with Mills, attended the three-day IPEC Institute in D.C. with clinical leaders from Greater Portland Health, the area’s federally qualified health center, to plan an expansion of clinical interprofessional practice opportunities for UNE health professions students that include osteopathic medical students. Mills also gave an invited keynote on leadership in a changing health landscape to the Chief Medical Officer’s (CMOs) Leadership Academy convened by the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC) in Washington DC. This is a year-long academy for CMOs in major academic health centers. 

To learn more about the Center for Excellence in Health Innovation, visit: http://www.une.edu/academics/centers-institutes/center-excellence-health-innovation

To apply, visit www.une.edu/admissions