A "CLARION" Call for Embracing IPE as the Status Quo for Preparing Health Professionals to Engage in Interprofessional Health Research

Complex health conditions and the social-economic determinants that contribute to disease and injury incidence, prevalence, and health inequalities require multifaceted evidence-based interventions that only interprofessional research teams who collaborate across traditional disciplinary lines can generate. Interprofessionally driven and derived research evidence is the method of du jour. Nonetheless as a whole, health professionals who are often members of interprofessional health research teams are products of educational systems wherein they were educated in disciplinary silos. Health professionals that learn about, with, from each other during their foundational education will be better prepared to function as interprofessional research team members. With the impetus of policy-makers, and accrediting bodies as well as support from funders, educational institutions are cautiously adopting interprofessional education (IPE). However, there remains a lack of empirical evidence about the downstream results of IPE, namely health and health systems outcomes. Thus, the IPE arena is ripe with opportunities for health and health services researchers.