A new comprehensive white paper and collection of use cases, co-authored by CareQuest Institute for Oral Health and 19 academic institutions, explores interprofessional education (IPE) in health care, with a particular focus on oral health.
The authors find that IPE is essential to foster collaborative, patient-centered health care. By fostering collaboration among health care professionals and emphasizing the importance of oral-systemic health connections, IPE can break down traditional silos that have separated dental care from general health care.
Key takeaways include:
- Integrating oral health into IPE can address systemic health issues such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and respiratory infections, all of which have connections to oral health.
- Nearly all (96 percent) dental schools engage in IPE activities. Professions that collaborate with dental and dental hygiene students include behavioral health, nursing, pharmacy, primary care, and social work.
- Recommendations include advocating for centralized university-wide IPE offices; fostering a culture of IPE within dental schools; and aligning IPE with workforce development and career readiness.
For IPE to fulfill its potential, the authors note, there is a need for improved assessment tools, increased representation of oral health in IPE research, and flexible, yet standardized, implementation strategies.