Margo Brewer receiving the award

Curtin’s innovative health interprofessional initiatives have taken first place in the inaugural International Best Practice Competition at the World Business Capability Congress in New Zealand from 5-7 December, 2012.

The pioneering health interprofessional programs in education, practice and research competed with over 40 of the world’s premier and award-winning companies.

Ms Margo Brewer, Director of Interprofessional Practice in the Faculty of Health Sciences, presented Curtin’s winning presentation, titled Best Practice in Interprofessional Education.

The highly competitive award recognises Curtin’s pioneering health interprofessional curriculum as innovatively leading the way in the deployment of best practices in industry through continuous quality improvement.

It also acknowledges the hard work undertaken by Curtin’s health sciences in designing, developing and delivering a range of interprofessional programs for the benefit of its students, the healthcare industry and clients.

Earlier in the year Curtin won the Australian Best Practice Competition conducted by Benchmarking Partnerships before entering the International Best Practice Competition.

The International Best Practice Competition was initiated by Dr Robin Mann, Centre for Organisational Excellence Research, New Zealand after working on a pilot competition with Suresh Lulla, BestPrax Club India and Bruce Searles from Benchmarking Partnerships.

“The judges were particularly impressed on how Curtin University used benchmarking to learn from other health providers in other countries and had translated and enhanced this learning to develop an innovative programme that was showing outstanding results” Dr Robin Mann summarized at the end of the competition.

Runners up in the International Best Practice Competition were Watson Real Estate Limited (New Zealand) and Spectrum Care (New Zealand).