Interprofessional learning involving medical students or doctors K Mattick & J Bligh Aims There is a belief that interprofessional learning among health care professionals promotes teamwork and collaboration, leading to improved patient care, but supporting data have not been available. Our aim was to identify recent studies on interprofessional learning involving medical students or doctors. Methods The medical education literature was searched for relevant publications since 1998 and the studies were subsequently classified according to various criteria. Results A total of 24 Ôresearch papersÕ and 36 Ôliterature review ⁄ editorial-type papersÕ were identified. Research papers generally described interprofessional learning initiatives and evaluated their success in terms of knowledge or attitudes by data collection. Seven collected qualitative data, 4 collected quantitative data and 11 collected both. None of the studies identified conformed to the Cochrane Collaboration guidelines for a rigorous source of quantitative information on an intervention’s effectiveness. Discussion The authors suspect that significantly more studies have been performed than those published. This may indicate research of variable quality, leading to a large proportion of papers being rejected for publication. More and better quality research is required as more resources become available to aca- demic and health care organisations for interprofes- sional learning. Keywords education, medical, continuing ⁄ *standards; *interprofessional relations; quality of health care; patient care team ⁄ *standards; research design; literature review (pt). Medical Education 2003;37:1008–1011 Introduction Concern about the possible consequences of academ- ically distinct health care education programmes has existed for at least 30 years 1 and interprofessional learning (IPL) involving health care professionals has been identified as an intuitively sensible approach with which to counter this. There is significant interest in research on IPL because there is a belief that it can promote teamwork and collaboration upon qualification, 2,3 which in turn will lead to better patient care. 4,5 To date, however, little evidence exists to support this belief. In 1999, a systematic review of the evidence of the effectiveness of interprofessional education for health care professionals concluded that no rigorous quantitative evidence con- forming to the Cochrane Collaboration guidelines existed 6 (http://www.update-software.com/ccweb/). In this study, we aimed to identify the most recent research studies on IPL involving the education of medical students or junior doctors alongside other health care professionals. Our main research question was: what research has been published on the education of doctors alongside other health care professionals since 1998? Our use of the terms Ôinterprofessional learningÕ and Ômultiprofessional learningÕ agrees with the definitions accorded by the UK Centre for the Advancement of Interprofessional Education (CAIPE). 7 ÔInterprofes- sional learningÕ refers to occasions when members of 2 or more professions learn from and about each other to improve collaboration and the quality of care. ÔMulti- professional learningÕ describes any occasion when members of 2 or more professions learn side by side. Methods PsycINFO, PubMed and CINAHL were searched for articles containing the terms Ôinterprofessional learningÕ Institute of Clinical Education, Peninsula Medical School, Plymouth, UK Correspondence: Professor J Bligh, Institute of Clinical Education, Peninsula Medical School, Tamar Science Park, Plymouth, UK. Tel.: 00 44 1752 764261; Fax: 00 44 1752 764226; E-mail: john.bligh@pms.ac.uk Original article 1008 Ó Blackwell Publishing Ltd MEDICAL EDUCATION 2003;37:1008–1011