PITTSBURGH, Sept. 15, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via PRWEB - The University of Pittsburgh's Health Policy Institute and its primary clinical partner, UPMC, have created the Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education (CIPE), which will foster the development of innovative new models of team-based, collaborative care education and practice.
The new center will be led by Ben Reynolds, P.A.-C., director of the Office of Advanced Practice Providers at UPMC, and Susan Meyer, Ph.D., associate dean for education and professor at Pitt's School of Pharmacy. CIPE will conduct research that evaluates the cost, quality and patient outcomes of new interprofessional care models. Findings from these studies will inform the curricula and training of Pitt's six Schools of the Health Sciences to ensure graduates are prepared for collaborative practice.
Ultimately, the goal of the CIPE research team is to fill the evidence gap around interprofessional care and build a feedback loop to improve the education and training of health professionals. Interprofessional care occurs when multiple health workers from different professional backgrounds provide comprehensive health services by working with patients, their families, caregivers and communities to deliver the highest quality of care across settings.
"The U.S. health system will benefit tremendously from a collaborative workforce that puts the patient at the center of how we deliver care," said Mr. Reynolds.
Pitt has been a leader in interprofessional practice since 2007, when the Pitt Working Group on Interprofessional Education was established to promote the advancement of interprofessional education. Since then, the University of Pittsburgh has continued to advance its work in interprofessional practice and education by:
- Becoming designated as a National Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education's Nexus Innovations Incubator Site.
- Developing and implementing a Macy Foundation-funded classroom and clinical program focused on "Interprofessional Modeling and Caring for the Elderly."
- Establishing an annual Pitt Interprofessional Forum.
- Modifying curricula across the health sciences to prepare students for the increasingly collaborative nature of health care delivery.
Pitt also served as the first U.S. host for All Together Better Health VII, the largest global conference on interprofessional practice and education.
"With our clinical partner UPMC, we have a unique laboratory to develop, implement and evaluate new team-based care models and to incorporate best practices into our educational offering," said Dr. Meyer.
Additional information about CIPE, current research projects, and the research team can be found by visiting http://www.healthpolicyinstitute.pitt.edu/interprofessional-practice. CIPE also invites proposals for collaborative research from diverse stakeholders interested in investigating and promoting the adoption of sustainable and effective interprofessional models of care delivery.
CIPE is housed within the Pitt Health Policy Institute, which has been committed to producing quality, evidence-based policy research and programming for government, business and the foundation community since 1988.
About the University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences
The University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences include the schools of Medicine, Nursing, Dental Medicine, Pharmacy, Health and Rehabilitation Sciences and the Graduate School of Public Health. The schools serve as the academic partner to the UPMC (University of Pittsburgh Medical Center). Together, their combined mission is to train tomorrow's health care specialists and biomedical scientists, engage in groundbreaking research that will advance understanding of the causes and treatments of disease and participate in the delivery of outstanding patient care. Since 1998, Pitt and its affiliated university faculty have ranked among the top 10 educational institutions in grant support from the National Institutes of Health. For additional information about the Schools of the Health Sciences, please visit http://www.health.pitt.edu.
About UPMC
A world-renowned health care provider and insurer, Pittsburgh-based UPMC is inventing new models of accountable, cost-effective, patient-centered care. It provides more than $888 million a year in benefits to its communities, including more care to the region's most vulnerable citizens than any other health care institution. The largest nongovernmental employer in Pennsylvania, UPMC integrates more than 60,000 employees, more than 20 hospitals, more than 500 doctors' offices and outpatient sites, a more than 2.7-million-member health insurance division, and international and commercial operations. Affiliated with the University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences, UPMC ranks No. 13 in the prestigious U.S. News & World Report annual Honor Roll of America's Best Hospitals. For more information, go to UPMC.com.
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