Building for the Future of Team-Based Care: Dipali Yeh Named Director of Interprofessional Practice and Education

As health care becomes increasingly collaborative, preparing students to work effectively across disciplines has become an important part of their education. To advance this priority, Rutgers School of Health Professions (SHP) created the Director of Interprofessional Practice and Education (IPP/IPE) role, and has named Dipali Yeh, assistant professor in the physician assistant program, to lead the effort.

The new role serves as part of the school’s strategic plan to strengthen collaboration, faculty development, scholarship, and student learning across health care professions.

For Yeh, the position represents a natural extension of work she has spent years building.

“I’ve been a practicing physician assistant for 26 years and at Rutgers for 20 years,” she said. “This role allows us to bring professions together in a more intentional way and ensure our students graduate prepared for the realities of team-based health care.”

Located within the Office of Clinical Affairs, the position reflects a deliberate vision for integrating interprofessional learning throughout a student’s educational journey—from classroom instruction to simulation experiences, clinical rotations, and eventually professional practice.

“Students learn interprofessional principles during their didactic education, practice them in simulation, apply them during clinical experiences, and then enter the workforce ready to collaborate,” Yeh explained.

That preparation is increasingly critical. Communication breakdowns remain one of the leading contributors to medical errors, making effective teamwork a vital clinical skill. Under Yeh’s leadership, SHP is expanding efforts to ensure students are trained in TeamSTEPPS®, an evidence-based teamwork and communication framework developed by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, while also incorporating the Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC) core competencies into learning experiences across programs.

Yeh began her career as an emergency medicine physician assistant at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital before joining the Physician Assistant Program as an adjunct faculty member in 2008. Throughout her career, her interests in simulation, teamwork, and health care communication led her to develop interprofessional educational experiences with colleagues across Rutgers Health.

Those collaborations have included partnerships with the Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy, Rutgers School of Nursing, Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, and national leaders in simulation education, including the Center for Medical Simulation at Harvard.

A certified healthcare simulation educator, Yeh brings expertise in both simulation-based learning and interprofessional education, two areas that increasingly intersect as health care educators seek realistic ways to prepare students for clinical practice.

“Not every simulation needs to be interprofessional, and not every interprofessional activity needs to be a simulation,” Yeh said. “Part of my role is helping faculty determine what educational approach best meets their goals and supporting them as they develop those experiences.”

One recent example of SHP’s growing commitment to interprofessional learning was the school’s second virtual interprofessional simulation event, held March 31. More than 300 students and 25 faculty facilitators participated in an immersive virtual experience designed to help students understand professional roles and responsibilities in patient care.

The event showcased an original simulation game developed by SHP faculty in collaboration with Ball State University. Yeh and colleagues spent several years creating the program, which allows students to engage with patient scenarios through virtual avatars while practicing interprofessional communication and decision-making.

The following day, graduating physician assistant students joined peers from nursing, medicine, and pharmacy in a medication safety simulation focused on identifying and preventing medical errors.

“One day we were introducing students to the concepts and language of teamwork, and the next day we were watching graduating students apply everything they had learned,” said Yeh. “It really demonstrated the impact of this work.”

Among the many initiatives planned for the coming year is the Interprofessional Education Cerebrovascular Accident (CVA) Case Conference, one of Rutgers Health’s largest interprofessional learning events. The annual simulation brings together more than 500 students and faculty from across disciplines to follow a stroke patient’s journey from emergency care through rehabilitation and recovery.

The event emphasizes both clinical excellence and patient-centered care, challenging participants to work together while considering the experiences of patients and families throughout the health care continuum.

Yeh is also developing a new SHP Interprofessional Practice and Education webpage that will serve as a central hub for faculty, students, and alumni. Planned features include an integrated calendar of events, faculty resources, participant registration opportunities, success stories, and highlights of faculty scholarship and student achievements.

The site will also provide new opportunities for alumni engagement—an area Yeh is particularly passionate about.

Recent interprofessional events have benefited from alumni volunteers who returned to mentor students and serve as facilitators. Yeh hopes to continue expanding those opportunities.

“Students benefit tremendously from seeing professionals who were once in their shoes,” she said. “And for many alumni, participating in these events can be a meaningful reminder of why they chose health care in the first place.”

As SHP continues to invest in innovative approaches to health care education, Yeh sees the new director role as an opportunity to connect people, share expertise, and strengthen collaboration across the university.

“We’re building something that will continue to grow,” she said. “The goal is to prepare students not only to succeed in their own professions, but to work effectively as part of a health care team. That’s how we improve patient care.”

If you are interested as a SHP alumnus in contributing your time and expertise to an IPE virtual event, please reach out to Dr. Yeh at bhattdi@shp.rutgers.edu.