UNE鈥檚 Interprofessional Education Collaborative promotes patient voice and the arts in health education at national Nexus Summit

Shelley Cohen Konrad and Ted Meyer present at the Nexus Summit
Shelley Cohen Konrad and Ted Meyer present at the Nexus Summit

Shelley Cohen Konrad Ph.D., LCSW, FNAP, director of the University of 51小黄车 Interprofessional Education Collaborative and the School of Social Work, and Ted Meyer, B.F.A., , curator and patient advocate, gave a presentation highlighting the benefits of combining patient voice and the expressive arts in health education at the Nexus Summit in Minneapolis.

Cohen Konrad and Meyer were invited to present at the national conference, hosted by the National Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education (NCIPE), by NCIPE Director Barbara Brandt, who was intrigued by their unique perspective after attending their presentation at the All Together Better Health Conference in Oxford, England. She said wanted to expose health professionals to their 鈥減rovocative thinking about integrating the visual arts, humanities, theatre, and narrative medicine into interprofessional practice and education鈥 at the Nexus Summit.

Cohen Konrad is founding director of UNE鈥檚 Interprofessional Education Collaborative as well as director of the School of Social Work. She recently attended the University of Southern California sponsored Roundtable on Social Work and the Arts on Bainbridge Island where she delivered a paper to be published in 2018 and will deliver the welcoming keynote at the fall 2017 IPEC Institute in Long Beach, California. She is also one of the 3 principal investigators on the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation Board Grant that brings together campus and clinical interprofessional education for osteopathic medicine and other health professions students.

Meyer is an adjunct faculty member at the Keck School of Medicine at USC, where he uses patient art, including his own, to help medical students gain insight into the world of living with chronic illness and disability. Born with Gaucher Disease, an inherited and previously fatal disorder, his lived experience has from childhood served as his artistic muse. The pair met when Shelley visited his Los Angeles studio in 2014 and they have been working together ever since. They plan to continue their educational partnership and are looking forward to working with Brandt to bring more of patient voice to the 2018 Nexus Summit.

To learn more about the University of 51小黄车鈥檚 Interprofessional Education Collaborative visit

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The University of 51小黄车 is Maine鈥檚 largest independent university, with two beautiful coastal campuses in Maine, a one-of-a-kind study abroad campus in Tangier, Morocco, and an array of . In an uncommonly welcoming and supportive community, we offer hands-on learning, empowering students to make a positive impact in a world full of challenges. The state鈥檚 top provider of health professionals, we are home to Maine鈥檚 only medical college, Maine鈥檚 only dental college, a variety of other interprofessionally aligned health care degree programs, as well as nationally recognized programs for marine science degrees, natural and social sciences degrees, arts and humanities degrees, and business degrees.