Getting it right: educating professionals to work together in improving health and health care

This paper is based on a lecture given by LAH as the 2nd John Horder lecture at Imperial College, London on 11 April 2006. Dr. Horder has been influential in improving patient outcomes in multiple ways, including his contributions to professional education. He was instrumental in the development of the Royal College of General Practitioners, serving as president from 1979-1982 and acting as a key leader in establishing post-graduate training for general practitioners in the United Kingdom. Dr Horder went on to found the Centre for the Advancement of Interprofessional Education, in part because of what he observed about the power of interprofessional collaboration in his own primary care practice. It was an honor to give a lecture in tribute to Dr John Horder. It was an opportunity to reflect on what we know about educating health professionals in training about the improvement of health care, including work I've helped to lead in the United States (where I now serve as the Senior Associate Dean for Education at the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Medicine). This paper also is dedicated to Dr. Horder.