Board of Directors Adopts Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice Toolkit

At the June 2019 Annual Meeting, ASCO’s Board of Directors adopted "A Guide to Effective Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice Experiences in Optometric Education," a toolkit for optometric education, that was developed over the past year by ASCO’s Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice (IPECP) Committee. The toolkit, which will be available as an open-access living document this fall, provides background information on the importance of interprofessional education and collaborative practice, practical information for optometry faculty and administrators on preparing for IPECP at their institution, descriptions of IPECP exemplar projects at ASCO member institutions and strategies for evaluating program initiatives and sustaining a culture of IPECP.

Dr. Linda Casser, IPECP committee chair, stresses the importance of supporting and facilitating IPECP at member schools. “This toolkit will serve as a practical resource for not only optometric educators but for all health professions educators who support the triple aim of IPE: improving the patient experience of care, improving the health of the population and reducing the per capita cost of health care. ASCO is proud to provide its members, as well as others in the health professions education community, with functional, user-friendly information that we hope will assist in reaching these goals.”