One of the report's recommendations called for "developing and funding of regional demonstration learning centers, representing partnerships between practice and education."
Weinstein sees the T-Health Institute as one of the first such centers.
The institute is essentially a teleconferencing hub that enables students, professors and working professionals to participate in live meetings. Its technology also allows them to switch nearly instantly between different discussion groups as easily as they could if they were meeting in person and merely switching chairs.
Today, the facility has two panels of four screens (there are plans to add more). Two of the eight screens are focused on the two so-called hot seats in the auditorium, and the remaining screens are reserved for participants calling in from other sites.
Those participants might be calling from sites already in the ATP network or they might be invited from outside the network as guests.
Attendees can participate in a single large meeting, or they can be broken into groups -- one group of screens would be bordered by blue and the other by red to distinguish between the two meetings. Participants can be switched between the groups to shake up discussions.
This unique, flexible, agile setup directly supports the goal of providing interprofessional education. For example, participants in a meeting that involved medical students as well as nursing and pharmacy students could interact in various combinations so they could learn to work together and see the benefits of providing health care in a coordinated and collaborative manner, Weinstein explains.
"You just open up the world in terms of educational activity, research, case conferences," says Gail Barker, director of the T-Health Institute. "It breaks open any barriers to interprofessional education."
A New Way to Teach
The T-Health Institute is a division of the ATP, which Arizona lawmakers established in 1996 as a semi-autonomous entity. The ATP operates the Arizona Telemedicine Network, a statewide broadband health care telecommunications network that links 55 independent health care organizations in 71 communities.