IPE-Lab

What IPE-Lab does

IPE Lab is an academic resource hub, hosted on CUNY Academic Commons and affiliated with Hunter College (City University of New York), that designs and disseminates open-access e-learning modules for interprofessional education (IPE) targeting health professions educators and learners. It emerged from the ITEACH (Interprofessional Training and Education at Cornell-Hunter) project, a 2010-2014 public-private partnership between Hunter College and Weill Cornell Medical College that was funded by a Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation Board Grant and brought together faculty from nursing, medicine, public health, and social work.

The core product is The Maria Garcia Series — a four-module video case-study curriculum covering Values & Ethics, Roles & Responsibilities, Teams & Teamwork, and Interprofessional Communication, aligned to the IPEC Core Competencies (2011, 2016). Each module runs 6-10 minutes of video plus interactive quizzes and learning activities, delivered as browser-based modules and as SCORM packages tested against Blackboard 9 LMS. A supplementary Instructor's Guide is provided on request for debriefing questions and discussion prompts.

The business model is non-commercial. All content is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License and provided free of charge; revenue is not pursued. Distribution is community-led through the CUNY Academic Commons site, word-of-mouth among health professions educators, and institutional partnerships from the original ITEACH consortium. Maintenance is performed by one named instructional designer/project manager (Shawn McGinniss) within the CUNY system. As of January 2020, the modules had been used at over 95 colleges and health professions training programs across the US and internationally, with ~7,000 unique visitors and 6,700+ learner certificates awarded.

Name

IPE-Lab

Legal name

IPE Lab

Website

https://ipelab.commons.gc.cuny.edu

Company type

Private

Founded year

2010

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1,001–5,000 employees

Short description

IPE Lab is a CUNY Academic Commons-hosted resource hub that designs and freely distributes open-access interprofessional education e-learning modules (The Maria Garcia Series) for health professions educators and learners under a Creative Commons license.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Medical Education E-Learning

NAICS

Educational Support Services (61171), Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools (61131)

SIC

Services-Educational Services (8200), Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)

akta.pro industry

PRIMARYEDAGANAJ

Healthcare & Clinical Professional Development (CME/CE)

Education/Educational Publishing & Learning Content/Professional Development & Training Materials

SECONDARYEDAAAEAL

Online/Hybrid Lifelong Learning Platforms & Open Enrollment Programs

Education/Adult & Continuing Education/Continuing Education (Noncredit) & Lifelong Learning Programs

SECONDARYEDAFAHAH

Standards, Packaging & Interoperability Tools (SCORM/xAPI/cmi5/LTI)

Education/Education Technology (EdTech) & Digital Learning/Content Authoring, Instructional Design & eLearning Development Tools

SECONDARYEDAGAJAD

Open Assessments & Question Banks (OER-aligned)

Education/Educational Publishing & Learning Content/Open Educational Resources (OER) & Open Textbooks

Keywords

• Interprofessional education
• Health professions training
• Medical e-learning modules
• Open educational resources
• Team-based healthcare training

Headquarters

HQ city

Washington

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Infrastructure, Others

Revenue model

1. Open Educational Resources: Free, open-access e-learning modules provided at no cost to educators and learners. Resources are released under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels2 records

Core offering

IPE-Lab designs, develops, and circulates free, open-access e-learning modules for interprofessional education (IPE) targeted at health professions educators and learners. Its flagship offering, The Maria Garcia Series, is a four-module curriculum covering Values & Ethics, Roles & Responsibilities, Teams & Teamwork, and Interprofessional Communication, delivered as web-hosted modules and SCORM packages for institutional LMS integration under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

Product overview

IPE Lab offers a suite of interprofessional education (IPE) e-learning resources centered on The Maria Garcia Series—a four-module curriculum covering Values & Ethics, Roles & Responsibilities, Teams & Teamwork, and Interprofessional Communication. These modules are available as web-hosted versions and SCORM packages for LMS integration, accompanied by an instructor's guide. All resources are released as open educational resources under Creative Commons license, providing free access for health professions educators.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• The Maria Garcia Series A series of four interactive e-learning modules aligned with IPEC Core Competencies for Interprofessional Collaboration and Practice. Each module contains 6-10 minutes of video presenting an unfolding patient case study, interactive quiz questions, and learning activities focused on teamwork, communication, roles, values, and ethics. Available as web-hosted modules and SCORM packages for LMS integration (tested in Blackboard 9), with certificates of completion awarded to learners. Free to educators and learners under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

Quantifiable outcome

• Content used at over 95 colleges and training programs across US and internationally
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers1 record

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration1 record

Feature1 record

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• Weill Cornell Medical CollegecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCo-Principal Investigator institution for ITEACH project. Contributed faculty including Carol L. Storey-Johnson (Co-PI), Byron P. Demopoulos, Joseph F. Murray III, Michele Senbertrand, and William M. Trochim. Key partner in developing IPE curriculum for medical students.
• Hunter-Bellevue School of NursingcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerLead institution for ITEACH project, contributing Gail C. McCain (Co-PI), Barbara Glickstein, Shawn McGinniss, Martin Dornbaum, Kathleen Nokes, and Kenya Beard. Primary host for IPE Lab and e-learning module maintenance.
• CUNY School of Public Health at Hunter CollegecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerContributed Stacey B. Plichta to ITEACH project. Partner in designing IPE curriculum for public health students alongside nursing, medicine, and social work.
• Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter CollegecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerContributed Carmen L. Morano to ITEACH project. Partner in developing interprofessional education curriculum incorporating social work perspective into team-based learning.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Broad incumbents

• NEJM Knowledge+: Commercial adaptive learning platform for medical knowledge assessment and continuing education, including interprofessional team-based modules. Comparable as a paid e-learning/assessment product serving health professions learners and institutions.
• Khan Academy (Health & Medicine): Large-scale free OER platform with health and medicine content, offering video-based learning and self-paced modules under similar open-access principles. Comparable as a free, video-first OER learning platform, though Khan's health content targets pre-clinical/undergraduate audiences rather than IPE specifically.
• Osmosis (Elsevier): Video-based health education platform covering clinical, basic science, and team-based topics for health professions students. Comparable as a video-first, paid health professions e-learning product with broad institutional adoption.
• edX / Coursera IPE offerings: Massive open online course platforms hosting IPE-related content from universities worldwide, including health professions interprofessional collaboration courses. Comparable as a delivery vehicle for IPE courses, but as broad MOOC platforms rather than specialized IPE resources.
• AACN (American Association of Colleges of Nursing) — IPE Tool Kits: Large professional association publishing IPE toolkits, simulation resources, and curricular guidance for nursing and interprofessional programs. Overlaps with IPE-Lab's nursing-focused IPE content but at much greater scale and as part of a broader membership portfolio.

Emerging players

• SIMPL (Society for Improving Medical Professional Learning): Non-profit developing IPE-focused simulation and assessment tools, including the SIMPL OR and procedural assessment platforms used across graduate medical education. Comparable as a modern, structured IPE assessment and learning platform targeting similar institutional buyers.

Direct peers

• Aquifer: Subscription-based virtual patient cases and IPE courses used widely by US medical and health professions schools; offers collaborative, case-based e-learning similar to the Maria Garcia Series but with formal institutional licensing.
• National Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education: The leading US IPE/IPE-C resource hub funded by HRSA and private foundations, providing open-access curricular tools, assessment instruments (e.g., IPEC Competency Self-Confidence Tool), and case studies for interprofessional education. Most directly comparable to IPE-Lab in mission, audience, and open-access model.
• MedEdPORTAL (AAMC): Peer-reviewed open-access publication platform for health professions teaching materials including IPE modules, with rigorous peer review and free distribution. Comparable as a peer-reviewed, OER-style health professions teaching resource serving similar educator and institutional customers.

Others

• CUNY Academic Commons: The hosting platform and WordPress/BuddyPress community network operated by CUNY that powers IPE-Lab. Related as the infrastructure provider/enabling platform rather than a content competitor.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about IPE-Lab