Mission

As a Community of experienced healthcare professionals, we know that the best way to serve patients and further healthcare innovations is through interprofessional collaboration. Over the past decade, MCPHS has paved the way for interprofessional practice and education (IPE) with significant advancements in practice, education, research, and service/community engagement. Given our rich and diverse healthcare programs, our Center for Excellence in IPE is uniquely positioned to educate, train, and support the next generation of collaborative healthcare leaders.

The mission of the MCPHS Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education is to create a unified model across the different University campuses to prepare professionals to work collaboratively on interprofessional teams to achieve better health, better care, better value, and better work experience. By sharing their unique skill sets, they learn to value the insights of other health workers and cooperate more effectively as a care team. To accomplish this goal, MCPHS provides a comprehensive academic environment that encompasses interprofessional practice, education, scholarship/research and service. The Center supports student and faculty scholarship/research that advances IPE and promotes positive outcomes to improve the health and wellbeing of our communities. The Center also incorporates specialty areas, such as pain management, to facilitate and optimize IPE in specialty fields, and advances University core values, such as diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) to improve healthcare for underserved populations through interprofessional approaches.

This patient-centered, team-based delivery model is the future of healthcare. By immersing our students in interprofessional practice and education from the very start of their academic career, we aim to give them the tools and empathy they need to provide their patients with the highest quality care possible.

A Long History of IPE Initiatives

In 2007-2008, MCPHS was awarded a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention grant, “Institute for Interprofessional Prevention Education,” which served as a catalyst in expanding interprofessional education initiatives across our campuses.

In 2012, an IPE Working Group Worcester/Manchester (W/M) was initiated to develop IPE strategies and activities for academic programs on those campuses to prepare graduates for licensure as health professionals.

In 2013-2014, the MCPHS IPE Plexus was established to promote the advancement of competency-based IPE to focus on collaborative models of healthcare and the provision of high-quality care toward improved health outcomes for individuals and communities.

In 2015, a research team on the Boston campus was awarded a sub-grant by the Association for Prevention Teaching and Research IPE Institute Evaluation to build upon an initial IPE funded project.

In 2018, the Office of the Provost formed an IPE Working Group Boston to coordinate IPE activities on the Boston campus and to complement the IPE Working Group W/M, as well as synergize the IPE activities across the University.

In 2019, two roundtables were offered to gauge interest and to obtain faculty feedback at the University’s Annual Academic Affairs Retreat: “Interprofessional Education across MCPHS: Next Steps Towards Growth and Unity,” and “Growing Simulation Use at MCPHS.”

In 2020-2021, during the global pandemic, numerous virtual events were offered, such as: “Interprofessional Research Day” (now called “Interprofessional Student Scholarship Showcase”) featuring faculty-mentored student research; a book club centered on cultural competence; and an opioid use disorder event.