Meeting the challenges of 21st century medicine requires an interdisciplinary and collaborative approach. Health care services are increasingly delivered by teams of providers from different professions. The interaction of these complementary professions is often as important to achieving an optimal clinical outcome as the performance of any team member in isolation. Likewise, the complexity of the system means that to be successful, we must plan and implement our interventions in collaboration with multiple stakeholders who bring expertise and capability that go beyond what any of us can accomplish alone. Our approach incorporates the following guiding principles:

 

Interdisciplinary focus: The Annenberg Center is accredited for multiple professions within the health care team and, where appropriate, addresses the entire health care team in the interventions that we design, including the professions of medicine, nursing, pharmacy, dentistry, social work, and psychology.

 

Collaboration: Solving the problems that we face in health care requires that we seek input and participation from multiple stakeholders. The Annenberg Center actively seeks to collaborate with both state and national specialty societies, quality improvement experts, policy-making bodies, payers, employers, and other continuing education providers. We are willing to play roles that range from organizer to supporting player. In the end, the outcomes that we are able to produce are more important than the particular role that we play.

 

Valid content: Ensuring that the content of our activities, particularly patient care recommendations, are evidence-based is an important strategy for guarding against the insertion of commercial bias and ensuring that it is aligned with the best interests of
patients and the public.

 

Educational rigor: In order for an educational intervention to have its desired effect, it must be addressed to specific performance gaps and designed with specific outcomes in mind. Successful interventions are often multi-faceted and draw on theory and research addressing learning, change, and organizational behavior.

 

Quality improvement: Health care providers are able to improve their performance when they are able to integrate new knowledge and skills into a context of their current practice and how it relates to national standards for evidence-based care. Wherever appropriate, the Annenberg Center incorporates tools to facilitate improvements in patient care into its educational interventions. These may range from practice-enabling tools into conventional formats to comprehensive performance improvement activities.