Walking the Walk in Team-Based Education: The Crimson Care Collaborative Clinic in Family Medicine

Abstract

Effective implementation of robust team-based care in the United States requires significant training for all team members. This education is integral to creating a culture of collaboration and respect among interprofessional members of the health care team. The lack of interprofessional clinical educational experiences contributes to a "hidden curriculum" that reinforces the problematic view that medicine is at the top of a hierarchy among health professions. However, learners themselves have started resisting this view by integrating cross-disciplinary team-based training into their own education. One example of learner-based leadership in interprofessional team care is the Crimson Care Collaborative at Cambridge Health Alliance, a student-faculty collaborative family medicine clinic. This successful clinic demonstrates that high-quality interprofessional clinical education can be accomplished through partnerships between educational institutions and existing patient-centered medical homes.