Background/Purpose: Scleroderma is a condition that can affect almost every organ system and thus requires an interprofessional team to optimally manage symptoms and improve patient quality of life. The Steffens Scleroderma Foundation and participating colleges developed an Interprofessional Education (IPE) Program to promote awareness of this disease among health professional students and emphasize the importance of interprofessional collaboration. Held annually since 2018, the program’s unique feature is its utilization of the patient as the educator.

Methods: Each year, the program connects 25 or more individuals with scleroderma with students of 9 distinct health-related disciplines including medicine, pharmacy, physical therapy, occupational therapy, nutrition, dentistry, nursing, psychology, and public health. These students are assigned to small groups to interview a patient with scleroderma, asking about the individual’s experience with the disease and critical aspects of care. After an interlude in which student questions are answered by a panel of experts from various disciplines, each group of students is assigned a new patient with a unique perspective of their disease. Afterwards, all attendees are asked to complete an anonymous survey regarding the event.

Results: The IPE program demonstrated an over five-fold increase in awareness of scleroderma in participating students, from 16.5% aware/very aware pre-event to 93.67% post-event. After the event, 55.7% of students felt confident/very confident they could recognize the condition in a clinical setting and 62.5% commented in an open response that the most important knowledge they gained regarded the diagnosis, symptoms, and treatment of scleroderma. Importantly, 95% of students said the patient educator was their favorite aspect of the IPE program, and 92.21% believed having the patient as the educator was important/very important for a condition such as scleroderma. In terms of multidisciplinary teams, 94.67% of students felt a collaborative team approach for the care of a multifaceted disease like scleroderma was very important/important.

The patient survey results reaffirmed the students: 89.47% of patients believed the IPE program was effective/very effective at increasing scleroderma awareness in students, and 84.21% were confident/very confident in the students’ abilities to be successful in a collaborative healthcare team. The patients also emphasized the importance of an interprofessional team management approach in a multi-system disease, with 94.74% saying it was very important and the remaining 5.26% saying it was important.

Conclusion: The IPE program provides an opportunity to connect graduate students from several disciplines and promote interprofessional collaboration for scleroderma. It highlights the importance of awareness and education for early diagnosis and uniquely places the patient at the center of the education model. Our goal is to replicate this IPE program on a National level at other scleroderma centers and universities. Expanding this pilot model nationally can promote the collaboration necessary among future healthcare professionals to assure the best quality of care for those living with scleroderma.

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ACR Meeting Abstracts - https://acrabstracts.org/abstract/increasing-collaboration-education-and-awareness-of-scleroderma-through-an-interprofessional-education-program-emphasizing-the-importance-of-a-multidisciplinary-team-and-the-patient-as-the-primary/