About Us
History
In 2009, the Centre for Interprofessional Education was established as an Extra-Departmental Unit (EDU-C), a strategic partnership between the University of Toronto (UofT) and the Toronto Academic Health Science Network (TAHSN) with the University Health Network (UHN) as lead hospital. Since its inauguration, the Centre has designed and delivered high-quality education activities across health education and health and social care systems. The Centre is a global leader and innovator in IPE across the continuum of learning. Learners range from over 4,200 pre-entry-to-practice students annually in academic programs, to clinicians, educators, and leaders in workplace environments, including over 3,800 alumni from our professional/faculty development programs. In more recent years, the Centre has fortified its research and innovation infrastructure, and is now poised to synergistically lead the way in advancing collaborative healthcare and education for a healthier world.
Evolution
Our Centre’s community holds a key to addressing some of healthcare’s most pressing concerns. The pandemic has highlighted the impact of health human resource shortages, the role of adaptive and team models of care, and the importance of collaborative relationships within the very fabric of society. Building and maintaining trusting relationships and continually improving our collaborative abilities is more important now than ever.
The Centre and its broader community value both science and experience on how to listen deeply and engage in dialogue, prioritizing compassion, relationships, and respect. In a time when truth and reconciliation, inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility have, at long last, become more formal and prominent foci for organizations, collaborative and interprofessional approaches have a dual role. We have a role to learn and grow in our own practices and we have a role to connect to the interprofessional education field’s longstanding strengths in striving for respectful relationships across positions of power, and across institutional and societal hierarchies. We will continue to lead toward collaborative change and inclusive health policies, systems, technologies, education philosophies, and practices.
Renewal
Building on our past and leading into the future, our collective commitment is unwavering. As of May 2022, we will be known as the
Centre for Advancing Collaborative Healthcare & Education (CACHE)
Learning together for a healthier world
Our new name honours the rich history of our Centre while aiming to include all who contribute to health care, including patients/clients, families, caregivers, and more. It also represents the breadth of our commitments to advancing collaboration in the domains of health education, practice, care, systems, policy, and research. And we aim to keep collaboratively leading the way toward a healthier world, together with our local to international partners.
Our new logo represents our openness to continued growth and evolution, and our intent to welcome a diversity of voices in dialogue toward building a healthier world. As a Centre we balance an openness and warmth that invites experience and story with a commitment to scientific rigour and evidence-based approaches to education, policy, and practice. Our logo and imagery aims to represent our aspirations of being increasingly inclusive, integrative, and inspiring.
Interested in supporting our work? You can donate here.
In health care, collaboration makes a world of difference. New discoveries, high-quality care, and compassionate experiences rely on strong collaboration, teamwork, and system integration. Teams must include: patient and family voices, students as leaders, and thriving health care providers and staff. Healthy teams are built through effective education and bolstered by well-designed systems. Our Centre is transforming care through collaboration across 11 health sciences programs, 15 hospitals, and a world of education, care, and research partners.
Your generous donation will help us recognize the important contributions of patient and family partners in education, create collaborative student leadership opportunities, and reinvigorate depleted teams as they recover from the pandemic and prepare to excel into the future.
Your donation is an investment in our collective future: learning together for a healthier world. Thank you.