The Cloutterbuck Minimum Data Matrix: a teaching mechanism for the new millennium

The demands of the United States' rapidly changing health care system and society signal the need to design and implement health professions programs which prepare students for practice within a health care paradigm that will be very different from the one existing today and for work with an increasingly diverse and independent consumer population. The Cloutterbuck Minimum Data Matrix (CMDM) is a teaching mechanism designed to generate a comprehensive base of consumer information prerequisite to the indepth level of critical analysis and synthesis needed to produce quality health care outcomes in the 21st century. The CMDM assumes an interdisciplinary perspective and educates students to recognize and incorporate consumer diversity into strategies for care.