The Importance of Interprofessional Education in Developing Collaboration-Ready Biomedical Scientists For Translational Research
Authors: Edwards Scott , Devier Deidre , Gasparini Sonia , Gunaldo Tina , Mazumder Harun , Simon Liz , Tian Xiaolin 
Published: May 2024

The biomedical sciences have advocated for interdisciplinary training to bridge the bench-to-bedside gap and strengthen translational research outcomes. As a functional extension of interdisciplinary collaboration, interprofessional education (IPE) represents a viable solution to strengthen collaborative relationships among basic science researchers and other health professional students at a very early stage in their academic journey in order to benefit patient-centered care. To support this direction, we developed a two-year longitudinal IPE curriculum at our institution (6 schools and 19 programs) termed TEAM UPTM. The focus of TEAM UPTM Year 1 includes building an interprofessional team while developing effective communication and collaboration skills. Case-based activities and a Health Partner Project are the main learning activities during the year. The Health Partner Project connects each diverse student team with an individual in the community to learn about the Health Partner's lived experiences and health-related goals. For the purposes of this report, we evaluated post-Year 1 individual perceptions and reflection assignments. The past 5 cohorts (2018-2022) have included a total of 42 biomedical sciences students (2018=10; 2019=11; 2020=10; 2021=8; 2022=3). After the final Year 1 session, students were asked to complete two assignments: a quantitative IPE perceptions survey and a written reflection focused on their interprofessional growth over the past academic year. IPE perceptions were measured using the Student Perceptions of Interprofessional Clinical Education-Revised Instrument, Version 2 (SPICE-R2) and examined retrospectively. We hypothesized that student SPICE-R2 scores would increase following participation in the TEAM UPTM curriculum. Indeed, when data are pooled across all five years, students exhibited a significant increase in total SPICE-R2 scores (p<0.001 by paired Student’s t-test). SPICE-R2 subscores were also analyzed separately, representing IPE attitudes related to (A) Teamwork, (B) Roles & Responsibilities, and (C) Patient Outcomes. One-way repeated-measures ANOVA analysis of score changes discovered a significant main effect of subscore category (p<0.001), with subsequent Bonferroni post hoc analyses revealing greater changes in the Roles & Responsibilities subscore (p<0.001) relative to the Teamwork and Patient Outcomes subscores. Student reflections were also analyzed using a qualitative approach, indicating a greater appreciation of communication skills as applied to decision-making and belief that building relationships with health providers would allow for better translational research. These findings highlight IPE as an innovative strategy to support collaborative mindsets and bidirectional relationships between biomedical science researchers and health providers at an early educational stage. P60AA009803. This is the full abstract presented at the American Physiology Summit 2024 meeting and is only available in HTML format. There are no additional versions or additional content available for this abstract. Physiology was not involved in the peer review process.