UNE鈥檚 Clinical Interprofessional Team on the move nationally

Dora Anne Mills, Toho Soma, and Melanie Caldwell provide consultation to a leader from A.T. Still University.
Dora Anne Mills, Toho Soma, and Melanie Caldwell provide consultation to a leader from A.T. Still University.

On Tuesday August 22, 2017, several people from the 麻豆传媒鈥檚 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, 鈥淟essons Learned from Scaling Clinical Interprofessional Sites from One to 12 Sites Across Maine.鈥 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 麻豆传媒osteopathic medical students working alongside other 麻豆传媒health professions students across Maine, with a focus on rural health centers providing care for the underserved. The Clinical Interprofessional Team, based in UNE鈥檚 Center for Excellence in Health Innovation, works collaboratively with 麻豆传媒colleges and clinical affiliates, with support from the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation. This last academic year, 165 麻豆传媒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鈥檚 Clinical Interprofessional Team on UNE鈥檚 successful efforts to scale up interprofessional education (IPE) and practice learning activities in clinical sites in order to assure 麻豆传媒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鈥檚 clinical IPE efforts.

Additionally, team members from UNE鈥檚 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鈥檚 federally qualified health center, to plan an expansion of clinical interprofessional practice opportunities for 麻豆传媒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鈥檚 (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. 

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