Shared medical appointments: a potential venue for education in interprofessional care.

BACKGROUND: Interprofessional practice has increasingly been recognized as important for chronic illness care. Recently, several health care professional-accrediting bodies have called for integration of interprofessional care and education. The shared medical appointment (SMA) is an interprofessional practice model that provides an educational opportunity. OBJECTIVE: A description of this innovative educational model, the challenges associated with the implementation, and the evaluation are presented. METHOD: Mixed quantitative and qualitative analysis were utilized. RESULTS: Preliminary evaluation suggests that SMAs promote improved trainee/student understanding of both the complexity of diabetes care and the seriousness of the illness, along with an increased confidence in the ability to communicate with providers from other disciplines. CONCLUSION: Further research to determine the efficacy of SMAs as an interprofessional training venue is needed that focuses on comprehensive assessment, necessary dose of exposure, and identification of barriers to overcome operational issues.