Report

Academic Health Centers (AHCs) play a particularly important role in health care because they are the places that train health professionals, conduct research that advances health, and provide care, especially to the most ill and poorest populations. An IOM Committee on the Roles of Academic Health Centers came together in 2001 to consider how AHC roles in education, research, and patient care will need to adapt if they are to continue to meet the public's needs in the coming decades.

The report, Academic Health Centers: Leading Change in the 21st Century, identifies actions by AHCs, as well as public policy steps, that will enable AHCs to respond to current trends; it also describes three strategic management systems that all AHCs will need to establish to enable a more coordinated and cohesive system. It recommends that Congress support innovation in clinical education through changes in the financing of clinical education and that AHCs pioneer the use of information systems for clinical purposes and incorporate their use into clinical education and research.