Team-based Education Helps Fulfill PCMH Promise

What's the best way to bring a good idea to fruition? Make sure people know about it. That's exactly what the Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative (PCPCC) did last year when it launched an interactive database(www.pcpcc.org) that features academic and training institutions that have embraced interprofessional training that brings together medical students, residents, clinicians and other health care professionals.

"We are delighted to have laid the foundation for a valuable resource that will help health professionals, academics and students understand and evaluate training programs around the country and their focus on patient-centered, collaborative team-based care," said Bill Warning, M.D., co-chair of the PCPCC's education and training task force, in the Dec. 13 press release announcing the launch. Fast forward to today and a conversation Warning recently had with AAFP News about this popular resource and why it was created.

Nothing like this database existed," said Warning. "And rather than a static publication, we wanted a resource center that people could go to and upload curriculum and share documents both regionally and nationally." And so they have -- to the tune of more than 100 programs currently. One word of advice: Last year's database launch was greeted with such an onslaught of submissions that the PCPCC technology team had to shut the system down temporarily to catch up. To avoid the same problem this time around, institutions have until March 31 to submit materials to have their programs included. According to Stan Kozakowski, M.D., director of the AAFP Division of Medical Education, the Academy supports the concept of training interprofessional health care teams and applauds the new PCPCC database.