Heather B. Congdon, PharmD, BCPS, CDE, FNAP, is firmly committed to advancing and expanding interprofessional education (IPE) in Maryland and beyond. A professorship award from the University System of Maryland (USM) will help her in fulfilling that mission.
Congdon, a professor in the Department of Pharmacy Practice and Science at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy (UMSOP), has received a $40,000 Wilson H. Elkins Professorship from USM to work on scaling up targeted IPE recommendations from the 2018 USM report “Strengthening Maryland’s Health Care Workforce.”
Congdon will collaborate with USM’s William E. Kirwan Center for Academic Innovation, which has begun assembling a working group with representation from USM institutions and several community colleges in the state. The goal: create a system in which students earn digital badges based on the three categories of an interprofessional learning continuum developed by the Centre for Interprofessional Education at the University of Toronto.
“This model places IPE experiences and activities into three areas: introductory exposure experiences, immersion and development activities, and entry-to-practice competence activities,” said Congdon, who also is co-director of the University of Maryland, Baltimore’s (UMB) Center for Interprofessional Education (CIPE). “Each badge tier would be mapped to specific Interprofessional Education Collaborative competencies and require completion of certain activities to earn the badge. The badges would be earned in sequential order, along the continuum of learning.
“The USM report recommended scaling up specified IPE activities systemwide and engineering a curriculum development process and framework that would mitigate the traditional institutional barriers to IPE curriculum design,” Congdon added. “The IPE digital badging initiative would help to provide such an IPE framework for all the institutions within USM.”
Natalie D. Eddington, PhD, FAAPS, FCP, dean and professor of UMSOP, congratulated Congdon on the USM award, saying, “This professorship is well-deserved. Dr. Congdon has a record of achievement as a pharmacist, educator, and clinician. We are thrilled that USM is supporting her in advancing interprofessional education at our institutions and beyond.”
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