SLU Honored for Excellence and Innovation in Interprofessional Education

SLU Honored for Excellence and Innovation in Interprofessional Education

Saint Louis University is the 2025 winner of the Association of Schools Advancing Health Professions (ASAHP) Award for Institutional Excellence and Innovation in Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Health Care.

This is the first time SLU has been recognized with the prestigious award. The ASAHP awards institutions for their work in interprofessional education (IPE) and interprofessional collaborative practice (IPCP). It is the only institutional-level award in this field.

"We feel that Interprofessional Collaboration is not just an activity, program, or a cluster of courses at SLU, but rather it is a value that describes our work and engagement with each other, our students, our communities, and the world," said Anthony Breitbach, Ph.D., Director of Interprofessional Education. "It is an honor to be recognized for the work we do together."

SLU will receive the award in October at the 2025 ASAHP annual Conference in Indianapolis, Indiana.

IPE has been supported at SLU since 2006, when funding was provided to establish the Center for Interprofessional Education and Research. In March 2023, Saint Louis University's Provost, Michael Lewis, Ph.D., charged a task force to reimagine IPE within the university. This task force developed a transition plan involving two phases: shifting the existing program from the School of Medicine to Academic Affairs and creating a structure with broad stakeholder involvement in Interprofessional Collaboration.

The restructured IPE Program launched on July 1, 2024.

"This change increased campus visibility and institutional support," said Associate Provost Lisa Dorsey, Ph.D. "We created a sustainable teaching model, and we developed a core IPE faculty team where teaching in the IPE Program is integrated into the disciplinary faculty workload. This model allows for a consistent core IPE faculty team to collaborate, assess, and review curriculum over time and across student cohorts."

IPE is part of nearly all SLU health-related academic programs' specialized external accreditation standards, and the current courses and learning experiences help fulfill that requirement, Breitbach said. Additionally, courses in the undergraduate concentration have been aligned to meet the six attributes of the University Core.

These courses are offered each semester on the St. Louis campus, with over 900 students enrolled each year. There is also an IPE course offered on SLU's Madrid campus.

"SLU is committed to Global Engagement. By working with international colleagues and providing courses in St. Louis and Madrid, we work toward that objective," Breitbach said.

Students can also earn a Minor in Interprofessional Practice, which includes the three courses of the Concentration along with three additional SLU courses in ethics, research and clinical immersion.

These programs are open to any SLU student. The minor is embedded in the Traditional Bachelor of Science in Nursing (TBSN) and the Bachelor of Science in Exercise Science degrees in Exercise and Wellness, as well as the accelerated Master of Athletic Training and Doctor of Physical Therapy programs. The Concentration is embedded in the Bachelor of Science in Occupational Science in the accelerated Master of Occupational Therapy program.

"The principles of personal, community, and population health are threaded throughout all of the SLU IPE Learning Experiences," Breitbach said. "The Jesuit principle of 'Cura Personalis' is a key guiding theme for our faculty, and it informs all of our work."