Collaborating Centres
ANNUAL REPORT
Folder eCC_00010269 is in stage Annual_Report_Review
Name of the University, Hospital, Research Institute, Academy or MinistryGunma University
Name of the Division, Department, Unit, Section or Area
Centre for Research and Training on Interprofessional Education
Reference Number

JPN-89City

Maebashi-City

Title

WHO Collaborating Centre for research and training on Interprofessional Education

Report Year

07-2014 to 07-2015

1. Please briefly describe the progress made in the implementation of your agreed workplan as WHO
collaborating centre during the past 12 months (or the reporting period listed above). Please report onhow each workplan activity was implemented, if any outputs have been delivered, if any results havebeen achieved and if any difficulties have been encountered during this time. If an activity has
previously been completed, has not started yet, or been placed on hold, please indicate this.
Activity 1
Title: Better understanding and dissemination of WHO/WPRO initiatives in IPE and CP
Description: The Commission on Education of Health Professionals for the 21st Century has published anarticle calling for a global social movement in order to promote a new century of transformative professional
education. The Commission recommended the promotion of IPE and trans-professional education as one of
the ways to improve performance of instructional reforms in the transformative health professional education.
The WHO HRH Policy is to scale up and transform health professions education to better address populationneeds in the 21st century.
There are several organizations that promote IPE/CP nationally or internationally. These academicorganizations make a flexible inter-federation network and have international meetings on some regular basis,such as All Together Better Health (ATBH) and Collaborating Across Borders (CAB) annual conference.
These conferences facilitate knowledge sharing and experience exchange, and to establish evidence-based
IPE and CP in developed countries’ needs, but not focus on the introduction of IPE in response to developing
countries’ needs that must fit with WHO policy. JIPWEN is one of the leading network organizations in theinter-federation network. For promotion of effective IPE to succeed, with JIPWEN convening and networking
capacities through the communication with international and national governmental agencies of education andhealth sectors as well as international academic institutes, Gunma University will support the WHO global andregional strategy on promoting multi-sector collaboration in IPE and CP by organizing and planninginternational symposiums with WHO staff as well as actively participating in these international conferences.

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Collaborating Centres
ANNUAL REPORT
Outcomes (Works):
Annual international symposium in terms of IPE and CP that the centre convened1) The centre and JIPWEN member universities convened JIPWEN International Symposium “Assess theeffectiveness of IPE”, 25 April 2015, with staff from WHO and GHWA, faculty staff from Tokyo University, andEditor-in-Chief of Journal of Interprofessional Care.
International conferences that the centre and JIPWEN universities participated
1) The centre sent two members of the staff to the 85th Anniversary of Nursing School and the 3rdInternational Nursing Conference, 9-10 October 2014, to discuss academic network with the Mongolian
National University of Medical Sciences in terms of IPE.
2) The centre sent three members of the staff to The 8th Asia-Pacific Action Alliance on Human Resources forHealth Conference (AAAH VIII), 27 – 31 October 2014, to discuss the role of IPE in Universal HealthCoverage with academic staff of Sapporo Medical University, a JIPWEN member.
3) The centre sent three members of the staff to The First Regional Forum of WHO CCs in Western Pacific,
13 – 14 November 2014, to strengthen the linkage to WHO Western Pacific Regional Office.
Dissemination of IPE in the context of WHO strategy
1) The centre sent a member of the staff to the first joining swearing-in ceremony for their undergraduate
students, Gumi University, 23 October 2014, to have a lecture for introduction of IPE.
2) The centre sent two members of the staff to the Taiwan-Japan Occupational Therapy Research Symposium
2015, National Taiwan University, 13 February 2015, to have a presentation for introduction and promotion ofIPE.
Outcome (Lectures and presentations):
1) Watanabe H.: Congratulatory message. The 85th Anniversary of Nursing School and the 3rd International
Nursing Conference, Ulaanbaatar (Mongolia) 9 October 20142) Shinozaki H et al.: Evaluation of pre-qualification interprofessional education. The 85th Anniversary ofNursing School and the 3rd International Nursing Conference, Ulaanbaatar (Mongolia) 10 October 2014
3) Tokita Y et al.: Outcome of the IPE training course 2013 at Gunma University, Japan. The 8th Asia-PacificAction Alliance on Human Resources for Health Conference, Weihai City (China), 27-31 October 2014.
4) Takahashi Y et al. (JIPWEN): Effectiveness of Community-Based Interprofessional Education in the First
Academic Year. The 8th Asia-Pacific Action Alliance on Human Resources for Health Conference, Weihai City(China), 27-31 October 2014.
5) Lee B.: Lecture on Interprofessional Education at Gumi University. The first joining swearing-in ceremony
for their undergraduate students, Gumi (South Korea), 23 October 2014,
6) WHO CC JPN-89 Gunma University: Poster, WHO Collaborating Centre for Research and Training onInterprofessional Education. The First Regional Forum of WHO CCs in Western Pacific, Manila (Philippines)
13 – 14 November 2014
7) Lee B.: Interprofessional Education Program at Gunma University. Taiwan-Japan Occupational Therapy
Research Symposium 2015, Taipei (Taiwan) 13 February 20158) Matsui H: Efficacy of IPE on collaborative practices-ready health workers - systematic review- The 10th
Japan Interprofessional Working and Education Network International Conference (Japan), 25 April 2015
Results:
The centre contributed to better understanding of IPE in the context of overall transformative scaling up ofhealth professional education through these activities for health professional educators, health practitioners,
administrative staff in education and health sectors at community, national, regional, and global levels.
Difficulty:
NothingActivity 2

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ANNUAL REPORT
Title: Collecting evidence for the effect of IPE on attitudes of learners and educators toward IPE and CP
Description: To disseminate IPE under the WHO HRH Policy to scale up and transform health professional
education evidence for the concrete effects of IPE on improving the leaners’ attitudes to better address
population needs in the 21st century and eventually health higher quality of the stakeholders must be required.
However, there are few publications describing the evidence for the effect of IPE on the health workforce
quality, since there have been few standard tools assessing it quantitatively. Gunma University has developed
an instrument measuring the attitudes of various stakeholders towards IPE and CP. On the basis of robust
networking of JIPWEN, Gunma University will share this information among JIPWEN universities and promote
their research work in evaluating the efficacy of IPE programs. Under WHO’s coordination, Gunma University
will coordinate and promote research activities of JIPWEN universities to collect evidence for the effect of IPE
programs on attitudes of learners and educators toward IPE and CP.
On the other hand, the collection of the evidence will be required to academic staff of the various healthprofessions among various universities in the Western Pacific region, as IPE programs will be introduced in
the region. Among those universities, under WPRO’s coordination Gunma University will promote theirresearch work in evaluating the effect of IPE programs on attitudes of learners and educators toward IPE andCP in collaboration with JIPWEN universities.
Outcome:
The centre and JIPWEN Universities published four scientific papers in English and six scientific papers inJapanese. Scientific papers provide the evidence of the attitudes of nursing school leaders toward IPE in theWestern Pacific Region. Also the centre received information about English publication of Tsukuba University
in 2013. The centre supported the establishment of Interprofessional Education Research Center (IPERC) in
Chiba University, a JIPWEN member, which promotes research activity in terms of IPE at global and nationallevel.
Results:
The centre with JIPWEN universities contributed to provide the evidence of the effect of the transformative
scaling up of health professional education through conducting these activities.
Difficulty:
Nothing
References:
Research papers in English
1) Maeno, T., et al (JIPWEN). Japanese Students’ perception of their learning from an interprofessional
education program: a qualitative study. International Journal of Medical Education, 2013, 4, 9-17.
2) Makino T, et al. Attitudes of nursing school deans toward interprofessional education in Western PacificRegion countries. Journal of Interprofessional Care, 2015. DOI:10.3109/13561820.2015.1027337.
3) Takahashi E, et al. Foundation of the Japan Association for Interprofessional Education (JAIPE), its roleand future prospects, together with Collaborative Practice of Health and Social Care in Japan. In: Forman D,Jones M, and Thistlethwaite J. (Eds) Leadership and collaboration: Further developments for IPE andcollaborative practice. 2015, Palgrave MacMillan, Hampshire (UK).
4) Tominaga T, et al. (IPERC in Chiba University) Psychological impact of lifestyle-related disease disclosure
at general checkup: a prospective. BMC Family Practice (2015) 16:60. DOI 10.1186/s12875-015-0272-3.
Supporting presentation for the establishment of Interprofessional education research center in Chiba
University1) Watanabe H.: Research initiatives of Gunma University Centre for Research and Training on
Interprofessional Education and Expectation for the research center of Chiba University. Commemorative
symposium for the Opening of Interprofessional Education Research Center (IPERC). Chiba, March 16 2015.
Activity 3
Title: Conducting literature review on the efficacy of IPE and CP
Description: Gunma University together with JIPWEN universities will conduct and develop biennially literature
review on the efficacy of IPE and CP, to update and improve the IPE and CP, and report it to WHO.
This activity will provide and update evidence for transformative scale up of health professional education.
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Collaborating Centres
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Outcome:An extensive review of the literature search in July 2011 and May 2014 was conducted. The centre used thereview protocol defining a review question, extensive search strategy and inclusion-exclusion criteria as sameas that were used in the Transforming and scaling up health professionals’ education and training: WHO
guidelines 2013. The search strategy identified 211 potentially relevant citations. After screening 211 citationscarefully, we determined that 16 met our inclusion criteria. Most of the evidence demonstrated that IPE
programs were effective for the students from different professionals in improving their attitude toward IPE andCP and appreciation of the roles of own or other professions, while two reports showed that IPE interventions
resulted in decrease change in student’s attitudes toward Interprofessional collaboration. The centre submitted
the Report to WHO: Conducting literature review on the efficacy of IPE and CP to WHO with an evidence
table of 16 articles and the Flowchart representing the selection process for studies included in the review on
21 July 2015.
Results:
The evidence of the efficacy of IPE program were provided and updated by this activity. This activity provided
and updated evidence for transformative scale up of health professional education.
Difficulty:
Nothing
Activity 4
Title: Collaboration with Education Development Centers in Western Pacific Region introduces IPE, under thecoordination of WHO
Description: WHO supports the establishment of Education Development Center (EDC). Under WHO’s
coordination, Gunma University together with JIPWEN universities will visit the regional universities,
collaborate with EDC, and share its experience in terms of IPE and CP by organizing joint workshops andlectures.
Outcome:Under WPRO’s coordination, the 2-days capacity building workshop and lecture were co-hosted by the centre
and University of Health Sciences Lao PDR, EDC, in Lao PDR on 30, 31 March 2015. The centre sent fivemembers of the staff to the workshop and proposed a four-year actionplan with a timeframe of the activities ofthe WHO CC and Lao PDR’s EDC in order to integrate the IPE program into their curriculum. Total of 34
participants participated in this workshop.
Results:
The workshop provided the knowledge and experience concerning IPE and was expected to contribute toinitiation of IPE in Lao PDR.
Difficulty:
Nothing
Activity 5
Title: Development of training course for educators and health practitioners
Description: Gunma University has provided IPE curricula since 1999, and the achievement and the effect on
attitudes toward IPE and CP in the undergraduate students have been demonstrated scientifically andquantitatively. The sustainable implementation and the scientific evaluation owe much to the gentle andcareful guides for students and teaching staff. Gunma University translated those guides in English in 2011.
Gunma University will develop training course for educators and health practitioners who are interested in theintroduction of IPE curricula through the collaborative activities, especially in the Western Pacific Region.
Furthermore Gunma University will propose to other member universities that they develop their own training
courses since the curricula implemented in JIPWEN universities are diverse in their contents.

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Collaborating Centres
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Outcome:
The centre with JIPWEN universities held IPE training course 2014 at Gunma University on 26 August – 01
September 2014. Two academic staff from Health Sciences University of Mongolia, Mongolia, an academic
staff from Gumi University, South Korea, one governmental staff and practitioner, dentist, from the Republic ofIndonesia, and an academic staff from Ege University, Turkey, attended the course to learn how the IPEtraining is established or developed.
Results:
This activity supported expanding linkages with health professional education institutions and providing IPE
training courses in Western Pacific Region and other regions. Mongolian participants disseminated this activity
in their institute, then the Dean of the School of Nursing invited the centre staff to establish an educational
network in terms of IPE in October 2014. The participants from Gumi University disseminate this activity intheir institute, then the President invited the centre staff to establish an educational network in terms of IPE in
October 2014.
Difficulty:
Nothing
2. Please briefly describe your collaboration with WHO in regards to the activities of the WHO
collaborating centre during the past 12 months (e.g. means of communication, frequency of contact,
visits to or from WHO). Please feel free to mention any difficulties encountered (if any) and to provide
suggestions for increased or improved communication (if applicable).
1) The centre contributed to the EHealth Workforce Regulation project by replying on the reviewing questions
with regard to regulation in Japan, July & August 2014.
2) The centre sent a member of the staff, Dr. Yoshida, as a volunteer of the Western Pacific Regional Officefor the period 01 October 2014 – 31 March 2015. The staff submitted a report entitled “Interprofessional
Education in the Western Pacific Region: Approaches in Implementation” to WHO.
3) The centre sent a member of the staff to WHO Centre for Health Development, 14 November 2014, todiscuss “WHO/WKC Consultation: Achieving Universal Health Coverage & Future Research Directions for theWHO Centre for Health Development”.
4) The centre contributed to a preparation of framework for action towards Universal Health Coverage byproviding case studies of IPE, July 2015.
3. Please briefly describe any interactions or collaborations with other WHO collaborating centres inthe context of the implementation of the above activities (if any). If you are part of a network of WHO
collaborating centres, please also mention the name of the network, and describe any involvement in
the network during the last 12 months.
1) The centre sent three members of the staff to The First Regional Forum of WHO CCs in Western Pacific,
13 – 14 November 2014, and discussed each other with other WHO CCs in the region about collaboratingactivities. This resulted in an establishment of a network sharing each advantage and information.
4. Please briefly describe any type of technical, programmatic, advisory or other support received
from WHO during the past 12 months for the implementation of the agreed activities listed above (ifany).
1) The centre received the advice from team Leader HRH WPRO regarding on the program of IPE training
course 2014 that was implemented at Gunma University on 26 August – 01 September 2014.
2) The centre received the advice from team Leader HRH WPRO regarding on the program of IPE workshopthat was held in Lao PDR, 30, 31 March 2015.

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