Research about Interprofessional Education and Practice

Selected overviews of IPE/Historical perspectives

• Oandasan, I., Reeves, S. (2005) Key elements of interprofessional education: Factors, processes and outcomes Journal of Interprofessional Care (May 2005) Supplement 1: 39-48.
• Interprofessional Education Initiatives in Collaborative Mental Health Care (2005)
• A Critical Review of Evaluations of Interprofessional Education The Interprofessional Education Joint Evaluation Team, 2002.
• Barr, Hugh (2001). Interprofessional Education Today, Yesterday and Tomorrow
  Commissioned by The Learning and Teaching Support Network for Health Sciences and Practice from the UK Centre for the Advancement of Interprofessional Education. A review of the development of learning and teaching in this area.

A brief summary of the research

When Zwarenstein et al. (2001) conducted a Cochrane review they looked for impact on patients/clients resulting from IPE. Findings from this systematic review revealed that there was no evidence (in respect to randomized controlled trials, controlled-before-and-after or time interrupted series studies) for the effectiveness of IPE on patient/client outcomes.

A review by Freeth et al. (2002) included other outcome measures (beyond patient/client care outcomes) and used a wider search strategy to answer the question: What types of interprofessional education under what circumstances result in what types of outcome? From the 353 peer-reviewed studies that qualified for inclusion, 107 higher-quality studies were identified. 79% of these were post-licensure initiatives. Barr et al. (2005) summarized the findings from these 107 studies as supporting the claims that interprofesional education (1) creates positive interaction, (2) encourages collaboration between professions and (3) improves client care.

A 2004 review for Health Canada by Oandasan et al. resulted in Interdisciplinary Education For Collaborative, Patient-Centred Practice Research and Findings Report (300-page PDF file). The online version summarizes the findings. Oandasan et al. reviewed 8 previous reports about IPE (including the Zwarenstein et al. and Freeth et al. reports) and conducted a search for research conducted since 2002. They concluded that evidence for positive results from pre-licensure IPE initiatives was still lacking, although they qualify this finding, as have others, by stating that a lack of evidence is not necessarily negative evidence.

Regarding post-licensure collaboration interventions, Oandasan et al conclude that benefits were shown in 11 of the 14 post-licensure studies they reviewed. "Five of these studies were able to demonstrate statistically significant and clinically important outcome differences in patient mortality rates, decline in healthy function, and other highly patient relevant outcomes. The remainder were effective in achieving process changes, also of importance, but not explicitly connected in the studies to patient health outcomes." p. 49

Relevant Journals

• Journal of Interprofessional Care
• Education for Health: Change in Learning and Practice
• Journal of Allied Health
• Learning in Health and Social Care

Recent Books

• (2005) By Della Freeth, Hugh Barr, Marilyn Hammick, Ivan Koppel, Scott Reeves
• Effective Interprofessional Education - Argument, Assumption and Evidence (2005) By Hugh Barr, Ivan Koppel, Scott Reeves, Marilyn Hammick and Della Freeth
• The Case for Interprofessional Collaboration (2005) By: Geoff Meads, John Ashcroft, Hugh Barr, Rosalind Scott and Andrea Wild

Bibliographies

• The University of Rochester's Centre for Clinical Research on Aging has compiled a bibliography of research papers that includes category of Interdisciplinary Health Care Teams divided into these sections: "Effect of Teams on Health Outcomes", "Measurement of Team Process and Functioning", "Team Process and Functioning", "Methodological Issues in the Study of Teams", "Training and Development of Teams".
• Interprofessional Education Patient Safety References.
• The University of Toronto's Faculty of Medicine Centre for Faculty Development has compiled a bibliography of materials about interprofessional education. From the Library page, scroll to the "Interprofessionalism" section.