Center for Interprofessional Studies and Innovation

The Center for Interprofessional Studies and Innovation brings to the forefront the Institute’s founding heritage as one of the first health care graduate schools in the country, while providing the framework to forge a new model of health sciences education for the 21st century.

This is especially relevant in the wake of 2010's historic health care reform bill which promises to dramatically alter the medical landscape.

It is clear that the future of health care depends upon creating teams of health care professionals to provide more comprehensive patient care. The Center provides the bridge to coordinate efforts across all disciplines and create innovative curricula.

The Center will have multiple purposes, including:

  • Extending the Institute’s educational mission,
  • Creating an incubator for innovation and entrepreneurial activity,
  • Fostering a spirit of creativity and innovation, and
  • Providing core courses in curricular areas such as informatics, ethics, and statistics

Several reports conclude that teaching health professions students in teams improves the overall health of patients, but long-standing barriers to interprofessional education within both the education and medical worlds will be difficult to overcome.