T rends in health professions education are often inluenced by reports that analyze national health care workforce needs, practice patterns of the various professions, and data on the quality of care provided, the cost-effectiveness of care, and the access to care. Over the past decade, the health professions have been urged to improve collaboration among their practitioners with the objective of improving the quality of care they provide, especially the complex care needed for an aging population and patients with chronic diseases.A body of knowledge has developed in the literature concerning what is now referred to as interprofessional education (IPE) and practice-a Association ReportAbstract: The state of interprofessional education (IPE) in U.S. and Canadian dental schools was studied by the American Dental Education Association (ADEA) Team Study Group on Interprofessional Education. The study group reviewed the pertinent IPE literature, examined IPE competencies for dental students, surveyed U.S. and Canadian dental schools to determine the current and planned status of IPE activities, and identiied best practices. Members of the study group prepared case studies of the exemplary IPE programs of six dental schools, based on information provided by those schools; representatives from each school then reviewed and approved its case study. Six reviewers critiqued a draft of the study group's report, and study group members and reviewers met together to prepare recommendations for schools. This report identiies four domains of competence for student achievement in IPE and summarizes responses to the survey (which had an 86 percent response rate). It also includes the case descriptions of six schools' IPE programs and the study group's recommendations for dental schools. The report concludes that there is general recognition of the goals of IPE across U.S. and Canadian dental schools, but a wide range of progress in IPE on the various campuses. Challenges to the further development of IPE are discussed.

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By now, all dental schools should understand the need to increase the enrollment of underrepresented minority (URM)

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Marilyn Woolfolk) have painstakingly reviewed and critiqued drafts of every chapter of the report. The NPO has supported the work of the National Evaluation Team (NET) in providing open access to the workings of the program, cooperating in data collection efforts, encouraging the Pipeline schools to participate in the evaluation efforts, and providing sage advice and counsel regarding the evaluation analyses and interpretations. While striving to provide an independent, objective, comprehensive, and understandable evaluation of the Pipeline program, the NET felt substantially supported in its efforts by the external reviewers and the NPO-even if, for better or worse, the NET did not always follow their advice. Of course, despite the best efforts of the external reviewers and the NPO, all remaining errors of commission, omission, and interpretation in this report must remain the responsibility of the NET authors. Because of their extensive knowledge of the Pipeline program and their good efforts to improve the evaluation, this report includes independent assessments of the program and lessons learned from the Pipeline evaluation provided by the external reviewers and the NPO.

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