An updated synthesis of review evidence of interprofessional education

With continued growth and investment in interprofessional education (IPE) activities, there is a persistent need to understand the effect of IPE on learning, organizations, systems, and patients. This paper presents an update of a previously published synthesis of reviews. In doing so it provides a critical appraisal of the most recent evidence for the IPE review literature. Following a search of the literature eight IPE reviews were identified. Findings from this synthesis indicated continued methodological weaknesses, similarities in the methodological approaches to the reviews, and a focus on short-term impact with a lack of attention on long-term impact. Despite methodological problems, the synthesis provided some insight to an increasing quality of research designs in IPE reviews. This paper discusses synthesized findings in relation to current IPE literature and in comparison with the previously published findings and offers suggestions for future directions.