Interprofessional Research 2030 - Global Leadership in IPECP Research

Seminar Description: 
Learning Objectives:
- Discuss the scope and impact of interprofessional education on collaborative person-centered practice and care (IPECP)
- Explore the current enablers and challenges in IPECP Research
- Explore ways to advance IPECP Program Evaluation and Scholarship

IPECP is widely recognized as a route to improving the quality of the patient’s health care experience, improving the health of communities and populations, reducing the cost of health care delivery, improving the work experience of service providers, and addressing the health inequity, known as the ‘Quintuple Aim’. Looking forward, IPECP is poised to also facilitate the increasing demand of effective teamwork from health providers and its partners at the age of increasing complexity and technological advances in health diagnosis and management.

Hence, the research agenda for IPECP should elevate the process of enquiry by shifting focus from that of program- or project-specific level inquiry to determining the impact of IPECP on the improvement of health outcomes, quality care and safety of service users; lowering of health care costs; burden on human resources for health, including ‘collaborative practice-readiness’ of health and social care professionals, resilience and work experience; and the eventual improvement in population health.

While the need for generating evidence to demonstrate the effectiveness and impact of IPECP are increasing, the 2022 global situational analysis report (InterprofessionalResearch.Global, 2022) demonstrates that almost half of academic institutions were rarely or not involved in IPE-related scholarly work or research. The current challenges for successful implementation of IPE scholarly work are attributed to inadequate administrative support, lack of funding, tribalism and hegemony, little motivation, poor attitudes regarding IPE, data management difficulties, and limited dedicated time for research (InterprofessionalResearch.Global, 2022).

To meet the challenges discussed above, the IPR.Global (2019) proposes the following global IPECP research priorities and research team composition.

Proposed IPECP research priorities:
1. Building the science and scholarship of IPECP through the discovery and integration of innovative evidence-informed strategies.
2. Identifying and applying innovative approaches that embrace and address the inherent complexity of interprofessional endeavors.
3. Developing evidence of impact along the continuum from interprofessional education to collaborative practice in person- and community-centered service delivery.
Proposed recommendations for research teams
1. We recommend that IPECP research teams include diverse experts from various disciplines, e.g. health, social, education, economic, etc., as well as from the quantitative, qualitative and mixed-method research methodologies.
2. Research teams should strive for the inclusion of learners, service users, community members and civil society as partners in interprofessional research.
3. Research teams should ensure that studies/projects are underpinned by relevant theories, frameworks and/or models in order to produce meaningful contributions to the body of knowledge in IPECP.

In this Seminar, we will engage the stakeholders on exploring and sharing best practices in implementing and advancing IPECP research within and across organizations. Using Dialogic approach, we will apply collective, reciprocal, supportive, and purposeful conversation to engage and voice everyone who joins us. This Seminar follows and expands the focus of previous successful IPR.Global webinars, workshops, and publications.