Skip to Main Content

Interprofessional Education (IPE): USC IPE Initiatives

Guide for the Interprofessional Education (IPE) Committee at USC. Includes meeting minutes, information, and research on IPE.

Health Sciences IPE Initiatives

Interprofessional Geriatric Curriculum (IPGC) 
Health professional students and residents focus on longitudinal care (1 year) at the Tres Lomas retirement community. Prior to summer of 2012, students practiced at the Hollenbeck Continuing Care Retirement Community.

Safety-Net Clinics
The School of Pharmacy delivers health care services to low-income, homeless and other vulnerable populations through its ongoing safety-net clinics. The new USC Medication Therapy and Safety Initiative aims to increase the school’s coverage to 24 clinics and medical homes in Southern California by 2013. The improved patient outcomes and cost savings that occur when pharmacists are part of patient-centric, health care teams have been shown in clinical settings ranging from hospitals to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Keck Hospital of USC Grand Rounds
Integration of pharmacy students into medical team under Paul Holtom, M.D. (orthopedics and infectious disease)

LAC+USC Hospital Pilot Project
Pharmacy and medical students work jointly on case.

Professionalism and the Practice of Medicine (PPM) IPE Case Conference
This case conference occurred during PPM on February 6, 2012 and brought together 2nd year medicine students and 3rd year pharmacy students to focus on communication skills and interprofessional roles. Next session is March 11 , 2013.

Potential Future IPE Initiatives

Interprofessional Day
At the beginning of the Fall Semester we plan to organize “Interprofessional Day” at the Health Science Campus. Each of the health professional schools will have their own booth. Students will be able to browse, discuss, and learn about each of the health professions. There will be a guest speaker on a topic related to teamwork and IPE.

Extra-curricular Interprofessional Case Conferences
We will hold extra-curricular case conferences with students from the various health professional schools. Students will collaborate on a case presented with a standardized patient (SP), working as a team to provide patient-centered care to a patient with a chronic health condition.

Expansion of medication reconciliation collaborations
There are plans to expand upon the medication reconciliation efforts in the safety net clinics to include physician assistant students. All students will be trained on medication reconciliation in evening sessions.

Interprofessional Career Seminars
We will hold evening open forums with a panel of speakers from a variety of health professions. Each speaker will give a description of their scope of practice and their role as part of the health care team. The goal is to foster discussion among students from different disciplines and help to provide students with a basic understanding of the role of their colleagues.

Promoting Cultural Competence
Workshops on cultural competence, using The Multicultural Health Series, a series of cultural vignettes, can be used to provide learning opportunities for medical, pharmacy, PA, social work and PT students.

Student-Led IPE Initiatives

Student-Run Clinic: A Patient-Centered Interdisciplinary Collaborative
The ongoing Student-Run Clinic consists of nearly 170 unique student volunteers from various USC health sciences schools and professional programs. These students work with physicians, pharmacists, occupational therapists, and physician assistants to provide comprehensive services to 10-15 underserved patients every week. Watch this video for a first-hand account of their success.

  • Email: uscstudentrunclinic@gmail.com

Medical and Pharmacy Student Collaboration (MAPSC)
MAPSC is an organization that looks to bridge the Medical and Pharmacy schools to create a more unified Health Sciences Campus. Activities include Case Study Sessions, Drug Info Sessions, Speaker Series, and Social Events.

ProActive Health Fair
Students from the Phyisican Assistants (PA) program conducted a health fair on October 1, 2011, at the Barrio Action Youth and Family Center in El Sereno, one of many underserved surrounding communities. This interdisciplinary health fair involved PA, Pharmacy, Dentistry and Occupational Therapy students.

Internal Documents

The IPE Committee has compiled internal documents (created by committee members) such as grant proposals, conference abstracts, instruction outlines, and more. IPE Committee members wanting access to this folder of documents should send their Gmail addresses to Karin Saric at ksaric@usc.edu.