Advancing integration through evidence informed practice: Northwestern Health Sciences University's integrated educational model.

A consistent theme running through the healthcare debate is the need for new care models that include collaborative, team-based care. There is also growing recognition that interprofessional education is critical to achieving collaborative, patient-centered care. Not unlike conventional, biomedical professions, CAM (complementary and alternative medicine) professions have also educated students in silos with little interaction between various disciplines. Northwestern Health Sciences University, under their NIH NCCAM-funded R-25 grant, is breaking new ground in requiring that their students in chiropractic, massage, and OAM complete a common course in evidence informed practice. A previous column described the core competencies that the students are required to achieve. This column focuses on the practicalities and challenges of offering a course to students enrolled in three different degree programs. Perhaps it will stimulate readers to consider how we might achieve interprofessional education that brings together all health professional students, biomedical and CAM.