Weaving psychology into the fabric of our society—through schools, courts, health care, research institutions, governments, corporations and more—is critical for two reasons: First, psychological science and practice help answer our global problems (from climate change and violence to chronic disease management and serious mental illness); second, our discipline is strengthened when we work with dedicated people from other disciplines. All four of my presidential initiatives seek to advance interprofessional collaboration in health care:
The Integrated Primary Care (IPC) Alliance. Last spring, APA hosted 83 leaders from 23 major primary-care associations for what some deemed "the best meeting I've ever been to." We developed 38 action steps at this meeting, including marketing integrated care to consumers and training modules. I hope the IPC Alliance can serve our health-care mission far into the future.
An Interprofessional Curriculum. Although interprofessional training is common among other disciplines, it has been rare in our field. That's why we have created a curriculum for an early graduate interprofessional seminar on integrated primary care. Once it's been reviewed, it will be posted on APA's website—this will no doubt be in popular demand.
An Integrated Specialty Care Work Group. Psychologists have worked for decades in specialty health care—in cancer, cardiology, genetics, orthopedics, rheumatology and more. New opportunities for our field continue to arise as the role of behavior in health is increasingly recognized. To describe these new roles, I appointed an Integrated Specialty Care Work Group of psychologists who work in these settings to produce journal articles for various audiences on psychologists' role in integrated specialty care.
Research on teams. Knowledge is developing so rapidly that no one discipline has all the answers. That's why, with team researcher Eduardo Salas, PhD, I am co-editing a special issue of American Psychologist to describe cutting-edge research on teams in aeronautics, business, health care, research and other settings. These papers will describe the important research done by psychologists and others who study team effectiveness.
Finally, to celebrate the importance of interprofessional research teams, I worked with APA's Board of Scientific Affairs to develop a new APA Interdisciplinary Team Research Prize to honor an interdisciplinary team that has produced significant scientific work. I congratulate Sara Czaja, PhD, and her team at the University of Miami Center for Research and Education on Aging and Technology Enhancement, who are our 2016 winners.
Thank you for the honor and privilege of serving as your 2016 president.