Healthcare from a patient’s perspective can feel like a series of separate appointments: a visit with a physician, a trip to the pharmacy, a dental checkup, a physical therapy session. But behind the scenes, effective care often depends on something more complex: healthcare professionals communicating, collaborating and drawing on one another's expertise to address a patient's needs.
At the University of Colorado Anschutz, that collaborative approach begins long before students enter practice.
A recent publication in the Journal of Interprofessional Education describes a longitudinal interprofessional education (IPE) model developed at CU Anschutz that engages more than 600 health professions students annually and spans multiple years of training. Co-authors Erika Freitas, PhD, BPharm, MS, associate professor and director of the CU Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education (CIPE), and Lindsey Yates, DDS, associate professor at the CU Anschutz School of Dental Medicine and assistant director of the CIPE, say the goal is simple: prepare future healthcare professionals to work together.
"Healthcare is a team sport, not a solo endeavor," Freitas said.
Interprofessional education brings students from different professions together to learn with, from and about one another. The approach emerged from a growing recognition that healthcare challenges can often be too complex for a single profession to address alone.
At CU Anschutz, students from dentistry, medicine, nursing, pharmacy, physician assistant and physical therapy programs participate in a curriculum developed by the CIPE that includes interprofessional orientation, collaborative practice coursework, healthcare ethics, simulations and clinical experiences.
The curriculum is designed to prepare graduates to function effectively in an interprofessional workforce, fostering collaboration that can enhance patient care and improve outcomes.
For Freitas, the goal extends beyond teaching communication skills.
"We try in everything we do to replace competition with collaboration," she said.
Students learn not only the roles and responsibilities of their own professions, but also how their expertise fits within a broader team. They are encouraged to recognize when to lead, when to listen, and when another professional may be best positioned to support a patient.
"At times, you're going to be the follower, and that's okay," Yates said. "Being a good teammate means you can step away from that leadership role and listen."
For students at CU Anschutz Dental, interprofessional education reinforces an important message: oral health is overall health.
"We are responsible for the whole patient," Yates said. "Think beyond the mouth."
She recalled a case in which a dental student's attention to persistently elevated blood pressure readings prompted communication with the patient's medical team. Additional evaluation identified a coronary artery blockage which required surgery that ultimately saved the patient’s life.
In another case, a patient's symptoms raised concerns about undiagnosed diabetes. After checking the patient's blood glucose level in the dental clinic and finding it dangerously elevated, Yates referred the patient to a primary care provider for evaluation and treatment before dental care resumed.
Yates said these kinds of interactions occur regularly in clinical practice. She recently worked with a nuclear medicine physician to determine when a patient undergoing radioactive iodine treatment could safely resume dental care. She has also collaborated with a hematologist to develop a treatment plan for a patient with Von Willebrand disease, a bleeding disorder that required specific medications before certain dental procedures.
These experiences underscore a core lesson of interprofessional care. A provider may focus on a particular area of expertise, but patient needs often extend beyond the reason for a specific appointment.
Freitas said helping students understand that reality can also reduce the pressure to solve every problem alone.
"We want the students to understand that healthcare delivery is not a zero-sum game," she said. "I have a team that I can rely on. I have people that I can reach out to, and the spirit here is collaborative."
Fourth-year Doctor of Dental Surgery student and Master of Public Health dual degree candidate Madi O'Callaghan has experienced the impact firsthand.
As part of her MPH capstone project, O'Callaghan developed and evaluated a pilot oral health education program for students in other health professions. Her goal was to explore whether a brief educational intervention could improve students' knowledge of oral health and strengthen their confidence in interprofessional care.
The project grew from a question she began asking early in dental school.
"I was surprised by how much we learned about the entire human body," O'Callaghan said. "I wondered what the other students were learning about oral health."
Through her presentations, O'Callaghan introduced students to oral disease, oral health resources, referral pathways and the connection between oral and overall health. The experience reinforced the importance of helping future healthcare providers better understand one another's roles and expertise.
O’Callaghan said interprofessional education ultimately encourages a broader way of thinking about healthcare.
"I hope that future healthcare providers take away a deeper appreciation for interprofessional systems of thinking," she said. "The best care happens when providers look beyond a single issue and consider the whole person."
That philosophy sits at the heart of the CU Anschutz model described by Yates, Freitas and their colleagues. As healthcare becomes increasingly interconnected, they argue that preparing students to collaborate across disciplines is not simply an educational exercise — It's a critical part of preparing the next generation of healthcare professionals to provide better care for the patients they serve.