King's College London

A few weeks ago, when ‘omicron’ was only a little-known Greek vowel, I had the pleasure to be invited at a special meeting of the Global Confederation for Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice. Interprofessional.Global, as it is more commonly known, was established in 2018 to bring together the regional interprofessional networks from around the world: UK-CAIPE, Africa-AfrIPEN, Australasia-AIPPEN, Canada-CIHC, Indian subcontinent-IndIPEN, Scandinavia-NipNet, South & Central America & Caribbean-REIP, United States of America-AIHC.

On 11th November 2021 representatives from these regional networks met in Winterthur, Switzerland, to coordinate activities in the different regions and share experiences. I joined this meeting as the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Interprofessional Care and a UK CAIPE Trustee, alongside other great colleagues from CAIPE’s leadership team.

Delegates at the meeting reflected on the significant developments of interprofessional education over the last decade in response to the call for action contained within the World Health Organisation (WHO) Framework of 2010, which was supported by the Sydney Declaration at the All Together Better Health Conference (2010). Interprofessional.Global commissioned an updated Framework and Declaration to be launched at the next All Together Better Health Conference (2023). This declaration will be known as the Winterthur Declaration, and seeks to develop, sustain, and advance the cause of interprofessional education and collaborative practice across the globe. The development of the Winterthur Declaration is very timely for the UK with its renewed focus on integrated health service delivery and modernisation of workforce planning across the NHS.

I was very impressed with the organisation of the meeting, including the safety measures taken, and enjoyed learning about the many exciting developments across countries. Fully vaccinated and with a negative PCR test, I joined colleagues in sharing the many innovations taking place at King’s and the UK more widely with regard to team-based interprofessional education and research; and also gave an update on the rapid growth, impact and reach of the Journal of Interprofessional Care, hosted at King’s. I returned to King’s feeling renewed by all the ideas and examples of team-based interprofessional initiatives, and with fresh contacts of leading centres for interprofessional education from around the world, which I look forward to sharing with colleagues as we continue our interprofessional journey at King’s.