Emory University’s Woodruff Health Sciences Center announced today the establishment of the Office of Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice (IPECP). The office will foster collaboration among interprofessional, interdisciplinary teams working seamlessly across education, research and clinical care to treat and prevent disease.
IPECP is a well-established priority for the Woodruff Health Sciences Center (WHSC) that was introduced in 2018 with the development of the IPECP Council led by Ira Horowitz, MD, executive associate dean of faculty and clinical affairs at Emory University School of Medicine, and Linda McCauley, PhD, RN, dean of the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing.
The Office of IPECP will be led by co-directors Jodie Guest, PhD, MPH, and Beth Ann Swan, PhD, RN, and build upon initiatives already underway to promote interdisciplinary collaboration, such as the IPECP Synergy Awards. Guest and Swan will report to the executive vice president for health affairs in this capacity.
The goal of the office is to educate, train and prepare the health care workforce through interprofessional opportunities that ultimately improve the health and wellness of the communities served by the Woodruff Health Sciences Center, which is comprised of the schools of medicine, public health and nursing; the Yerkes National Primate Research Center; Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University; and Emory Healthcare, the most comprehensive academic health care system in the state.
“The Atlanta metropolitan area is highly diverse and rapidly growing and much of this population relies on the education, research and clinical care provided by the units of the Woodruff Health Sciences Center,” says Jonathan S. Lewin, MD, Emory’s executive vice president of health affairs and CEO of Emory Healthcare. “The Office of IPECP will harness the collective talents of our clinicians, faculty and researchers in order to augment interprofessional education, training and collaboration so that we continue to provide the latest medical advancements, care models and treatment to those we serve.”
From the outset, the newly established office will focus on enhancing interprofessional curricula that provide all learners with team-based competencies, accelerating the adoption of team-based care models and supporting research that advances knowledge on the effectiveness of IPECP.
“Building collaborations to improve the health of patients and our communities is such an exciting initiative,” says Guest, who is professor and vice chair of the department of epidemiology at Rollins School of Public Health and associate program director for the Physician Assistant Program at Emory University School of Medicine. “With a goal to transform public health and health care through interprofessional learning, there has never been a time when this was more needed. Drawing from three incredible schools in the Woodruff Health Sciences Center, it is very exciting to co-lead the office that will highlight the interprofessional work already being done at Emory and create and support new collaborations for our educators, students and clinicians.”
The office will support new endeavors related to interprofessional education by leveraging the Woodruff Health Sciences Center Strategic Plan and the other collaborative pillars of constructive culture, transforming models of care, innovative discovery and data science.
“The Woodruff Health Sciences Center already has a strong foundation in IPECP,” says Swan, who is professor, associate dean and vice president for academic practice partnerships at Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing and executive director for the Emory Nursing Learning Center. “With this foundation, this new office provides unprecedented opportunities to synchronize all aspects of interprofessional education and practice to lead and accelerate the design and implementation of transformed team-based care delivery models. There is an urgency to radically shift the care paradigm by creating a culture of collaborative educational practice.”
The Office of IPECP will officially launch in March.
About:
Jodie Guest, PhD, MPH, is professor and vice chair of the department of epidemiology at Rollins School of Public Health and associate program director for the Physician Assistant Program in the School of Medicine at Emory University. Guest has a broad background in epidemiology and specific expertise in HIV cohorts and clinical trials and emergency preparedness. She has focused her research on racial, sexual and gender minority populations in HIV care.
Guest is director of the Emory Farmworker Project, a multi-disciplinary program to provide healthcare to thousands of migrant farmworkers each year. Since March 2020, she has led Emory’s Outbreak Response Team for COVID-19, working in Hall County with poultry plant workers, communities in middle Georgia, the Mexican Consulate in Atlanta and communities with limited access to vaccines and testing due to unstable housing. She is on the leadership advisory council for the Emory COVID-19 Response Collaborative, a public health and academic partnership, and is leading the outbreak response efforts for this collaboration. She was awarded Emory’s 2021 MLK Community Service Award for her work with her Outbreak Response Team.
Guest serves on the board of trustees for Leadership Atlanta and Georgia Humanities, along with the leadership council for Zoo Atlanta. She is a faculty counselor for Emory Board of Trustees. She also serves on the Atlanta Mayor’s LGBTQ Advisory Council and is co-chair of the National LGBTQ Health Conference. Additionally, Guest is the founder and executive director of Teen Corp, a medical and philanthropy organization created to bring experiential learning to youth leaders.
Beth Ann Swan, PhD, RN, FAAN, is professor, clinical track, and associate dean and vice president for academic practice partnerships at the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing. She is also executive director for the Emory Nursing Learning Center. Swan joined Emory during the pandemic and has focused the innovation aspects of her work on creating dynamic interprofessional education and collaborative practice through simulation and virtual and augmented reality.
Her research and publications focus on promoting primary and ambulatory care and exploring the impact of changing health care delivery models on outcomes of care. As the principal investigator on extramural funded grants, Swan has provided leadership and mentorship on groundbreaking projects impacting both nursing practice and interprofessional education. Swan co-developed the national curriculum for care coordination and transition management and most recently co-edited the book Perspectives in Ambulatory Care Nursing with Emory colleagues.
Before joining Emory, Swan served as the dean of the Jefferson College of Nursing at Thomas Jefferson University and was a member of the Veterans Health Administration Choice Act Blue Ribbon Panel.