Laura Smith, PT, DPT, PhD
Associate Professor
University of Michigan Flint
Dr. Laura Smith is an Associate Professor with tenure and the Associate Director for Post Professional Clinical Professional Development in the Physical Therapy Department at the University of Michigan-Flint. Dr. Smith is an ABPTS Board Certified Orthopedic Clinical Specialist and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Orthopedic Manual Physical Therapists. Her interprofessional work focuses on educational innovation and authentic experiential learning with the goal of advancing the physical therapy profession, health and health outcomes. Dr. Smith is the Director of the Interprofessional Research Lab (IRL) and is an established scholar with numerous presentations to local, national and international audiences on the topics of interprofessional education, collaborative practice and female breast injury.

Presenting at the Nexus Summit:

Poster Description: Background Interprofessional socialization is essential to success in clinical practice and promoting population health, yet it is overshadowed by uni-professional development. Focusing only on uni-professional development is a lost opportunity for learners to foster awareness around each profession’s and patient’s values, beliefs, ethics, and lived experiences. Experiential interprofessional education (IPE) through practice settings for early learners can lead to changes in mindsets and work cultures in which individual, interpersonal, and systemic factors a patient…
Poster Description: Background: The Longitudinal Interprofessional Family Based Experience (LIFE) is an experiential educational offering focused on teamwork of interprofessional student teams with patients who have chronic illnesses. Due to the initial success, expansion to reach more students, patient advisors, faculty, and collaborating units through academic/practice partnerships was needed. This presentation aims to highlight the scaling frameworks and sustainability strategies. Methods: The LIFE team, faculty/students/staff representing 11 academic units and the health system’s Office…
Interprofessional Student Poster Description: Background: Persons with a disability (PWD) make up the largest minority in the US with estimated numbers from 2021 claiming that 27%of Americans are currently living with a disability.1 The CDC and NIDILRR both expect the number of PWD in the US to grow until a peak in 2030.1,2 The CDC reports that PWD are at 2-3 times more likely to experience obesity, smoking, heart disease, and diabetes on top of their disability which can lead to them requiring a large care team with a variety of health professionals.1 PWD are more likely to experience…
Poster Description: Objective: Patients’ evaluation of interprofessional healthcare teams is critical to understanding team-based care. As part of an educational experience, patients/families were interviewed by interprofessional teams of healthcare students. The objective of this study was to describe patient’s/family’s opportunity to evaluate the interprofessional teams and their perceptions of interacting with the teams. Methods: Longitudinal Interprofessional Family-Based Experience (LIFE) is a semester-long experiential offering for early learners at a large midwestern university,…