Saturday, October 30
11:15 – 11:45 a.m. CT
The Ethics of Interprofessional Collaboration: Why it is Not Nearly as Simple as it Sounds
Jos V.M. Welie, MA, MMedS, JD, PhD
Maastricht University

Interprofessional collaboration is widely hailed as the future in patient care, particularly in complex situations. It is widely acknowledged as well that such collaboration is not easily realized due to super-specialization and silo-formation in the world of health care at multiple levels (including education, organization, inculturation, and regulation). These barriers are not, however, fundamental and they can be overcome pragmatically. Generally overlooked in the debate about interprofessional collaboration are the epistemological and ethical differences between professions. And these are fundamental. In this presentation we will review the defining characteristics of professions and discuss whether the challenges that arise when engaging in interprofessional cooperation can be overcome, and how to do so.

At the conclusion of this session, attendees should be able to:

• Describe core professional ethical values of oral health care providers.
• Compare and contrast these with core values in other professions.
• Negotiate conflicts between different sets of professional values.

Biography: Dr. Welie studied medicine, law, and philosophy. He serves as Dean of the honors college that is part of Maastricht University (Netherlands). He retains a part-time position at Creighton University (Omaha), teaching in the online MS in Bioethics. Dr. Welie has authored more than 225 publications, including two books on dental ethics. He served as the Founding Secretary of the International Dental Ethics and Law Society, and received honorary fellowship in the ACD in 2011.