About this Research Topic
While entering students now strongly endorse Inter-Professional Education (IPE) programs, various academic institutions have failed to sustain such programs for at least three decades. Educators continue to experiment with a wide array of new IPE models, but best practices to produce and maintain team-based care are poorly defined (e.g., Abu-Rish et al. 2012 J Interprof Care 26: 444-451). Instead, programs come and go but few last more than a few years. In this Frontiers Research Topic, we seek works designed to overcome the formidable obstacles to IPE and physician-pharmacist collaboration. Topics of interest include building support for IPE and overcoming barriers to it. Descriptions of existing programs and their assessment are also welcome. We especially solicit research papers showing successful IPE outcomes and achievement of core competencies. In addition, we seek descriptive papers of successful pharmacist/physician collaborations in practice and challenges to creating and maintaining them. Finally, and most importantly, how does collaboration affect patient care?
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.