{"id":99795,"date":"2026-07-14T03:30:25","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T07:30:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/?p=99795"},"modified":"2026-07-14T11:28:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T15:28:10","slug":"utoledo-communitycare-clinics-earn-national-recognition-for-interprofessional-excellence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/07_14_2026\/utoledo-communitycare-clinics-earn-national-recognition-for-interprofessional-excellence","title":{"rendered":"UToledo CommunityCare Clinics Earn National Recognition for Interprofessional Excellence"},"content":{"rendered":"

The University of Toledo’s CommunityCare Clinics have been named the recipient of the 2026 Excellence in Interprofessional Education Collaboration National Award, presented by the Interprofessional Education Collaborative<\/a> in partnership with the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Officers Foundation.<\/p>\n

The award recognizes programs that demonstrate meaningful real-world impact through interprofessional teamwork. Each week, medical students from across UToledo’s health science programs work side by side, guided by licensed healthcare providers, to deliver coordinated, team-based care to underserved communities in Toledo, including some of the area’s most economically vulnerable neighborhoods.<\/p>\n

\"From

From left, Desha Perera, CommunityCares Clinics director of administration and a student in the College of Medicine and Life Sciences; Dr. Susan Batten, an associate professor in the School of Nursing; Dr. Mitch Howard, director of the IPPE program and the PGY1 Community-Based residency program in the College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences; Dr. Richard Paat, a clinical professor of internal medicine in the College of Medicine and Life Sciences; and Benjamin Theis, CommunityCares Clinics executive director and a student in the College of Medicine and Life Sciences.<\/p><\/div>\n

The joint initiative is currently led by Dr. Mitchell Howard, director of the IPPE program and the PGY1 Community-Based residency program; Dr. Richard Paat, clinical professor of internal medicine; and Dr. Susan Batten, an associate professor in the School of Nursing.<\/p>\n

Howard said the recognition carries personal meaning for his immediate team, while also honoring the work accomplished by the people who founded the CCC years ago.<\/p>\n

“This recognition is especially meaningful to me because I was involved with this clinic myself as a student-leader several years ago and I have continued to serve as a pharmacist,” he said. “The CommunityCare Clinics not only provide essential care and support to members across our community, but they also give students a transformative opportunity to learn alongside other professions, better understand team-based care and develop into compassionate, collaborative healthcare providers.”<\/p>\n

Through the clinic experience, students develop skills in interprofessional communication, care planning, and shared decision-making \u2014 learning not just their own clinical role but how to function effectively within a team that includes colleagues from medicine, nursing, pharmacy and beyond. The model is student-led, meaning participants aren’t passive observers but active contributors to quality improvement and problem-solving in real patient care settings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"From<\/a>

The national honor recognizes UToledo’s student-led model of team-based care for underserved Toledo communities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":932,"featured_media":99796,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,61,97,38,42,7],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99795"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/932"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99795"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99795\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":99808,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99795\/revisions\/99808"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}