The SCTRC has been involved in supporting the interprofessional education curriculum at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), which now includes a telehealth component. UAMS supports the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s Quadruple Aim goals. These goals are to help health care organizations:
- Improve the patient experience of care (including quality and satisfaction);
- Improve the health of populations;
- Reduce the per capita cost of health care; and
- Improve provider satisfaction (professional wellness)
The Office of Interprofessional Education (OIPE) was initiated in 2012. The OIPE strategic plan is grounded on the Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC) domains of competency for interprofessional education (IPE) and interprofessional collaborative practice (IPCP): Values & Ethics, Roles & Responsibilities, Interprofessional Effective Communication, Teams & Teamwork. In addition to the IPEC domains, OIPE embraces the Quadruple Aim goals to guide the design and implementation of educational content in the UAMS IPE Curriculum Framework. A horizontal organizational structure that bridges across the five health professions colleges and graduate schools at UAMS guides curriculum expectations for students and integrates IPE and IPCP goals with the clinical delivery system and our research enterprise.
One educational activity in the UAMS IPE Curriculum Framework is Quadruple Aim Project Proposal Workshop. In this workshop, interprofessional teams of students develop a mini-grant/quality improvement application targeting a call for proposals from academic or clinical care settings. In the fall of 2020, telehealth was integrated into the workshop curriculum for the first time with a little help from the South Central Telehealth Resource Center (SCTRC).
At the onset of the pandemic, Dr. Kathryn Neill, Director of Interprofessional Administrative and Curricular Affairs, was working closely with Dr. Joseph Sanford, Director of the UAMS Institute for Digital Health & Innovation (IDHI), at the UAMS Emergency Operation Center on several patient care projects. At the same time, Neill was transitioning IPE activities to things that would work virtually. Meanwhile, telehealth saw a huge explosion in response to the pandemic. All this was happening “right smack in the middle of COVID,” Neill said, “and with COVID transitions, and how we were adapting practice…telehealth just fit beautifully with what I was doing with interprofessional education.” She told Sanford, “I’d love to do some telehealth activities,” so he put her in touch with the IDHI Director of Education, Dr. Stanley Ellis, who then reached out to the SCTRC.
In November 2020, the SCTRC and other IDHI representatives took part in the workshop as content experts for students and their project development/presentation of ideas. Having telehealth experts on hand was key to the success of these events. “I see you as being experts on the different types of things that we do in digital health,” said Dr. Neill, “Absolutely rural care provision is essential, and I know there are efforts to integrate with the regional program sites.” Dr. Neill saw the content experts as a way to introduce students to the topic of telehealth, but also guide them through the intricacies of a telehealth appointment. “I think it is common that many of the students have not yet participated in a virtual visit or telehealth visit, you know – how you define it… There are different ways that you can look at it, and I think sometimes, for people that are starting new to telehealth, much of the focus is really on the logistics of it.”
During the first workshop, over the course of the afternoon (five hours total), interprofessional student teams determined an area of focus and put together a three-page written summary of their proposal using proposal worksheet guidelines with guidance from the SCTRC and other faculty facilitators. During the last hour of the workshop, each team presented their idea to the other teams and faculty facilitators for Q&A and feedback. Since then, the SCTRC has participated in two other workshops, most recently in September 2021.
Dr. Neill has a vision for the future of the program and SCTRC’s place in it. She wants digital health and Interprofessional Education to have a continued strong link. “It’s the way things are moving forward,” says Neill. “I want us to strategically think about what do we do next… Or how do we use the things we’re doing right now and put them out there in a different way – to really grow our telehealth presence and recognition in the state.” After reviewing several competencies (i.e. IPEC, AAMC, and the IDHI) and co-mapping all proficiencies, Dr. Neill says, “It’s really easy to say how working interprofessionally helps us with patient care and team collaboration and using telehealth as the venue to be able to do that opens up tremendous opportunities.”
