New From the AAHC

The Clinical Trials Administration Toolkit is designed to assist academic health center leaders, research administrators, and chief compliance officers in establishing, strengthening, and improving the administrative infrastructure for the research enterprise, particularly to manage and support compliance functions for clinical trials.
To order, click here.

Out of Order, Out of Time:The State of the Nation's Health Workforce, is a report undertaken by the Association of Academic Health Centers (AAHC) to focus attention on the critical need for a new collaborative, coordinated national health workforce planning initiative.

To learn more, click here.

UPDATE FROM THE PRESIDENT

Dr. Steven A. Wartman Steven A. Wartman, MD, PhD

**Wealth…and/or Health**

Health and wealth. With only one letter difference between the two, they are the top driving forces in our economy and healthcare system. Where there is synergy between the two, the system works; where that synergy is absent, we have a system purported to be failing and unsustainable. However, every system is designed to get the results it achieves.

Our health system has certainly been effective in creating wealth. That wealth resides in part in the hands of physicians and other providers, but to a large extent in the companies that manage, manufacture and/or create health products or systems, including insurance products. The Washington Post recently called health care “the beating heart of America’s economy.”

The good news is that in many circumstances the nexus of health and wealth is quite positive and productive, particularly when it is focused in those areas of medical care that excel in generating profits. For example, many of the greatest strides in the nation’s health report card lie in highly profitable specialty areas, such as cardiology, orthopedics, and some fields of oncology. Wealth is also generated in “look good/feel good medicine,” which arguably does not impact overall health status, but certainly does have an impact on the well-being of those who can afford it. Unfortunately, there are fundamental healthcare segments that are far less profitable and have not done as well (e.g., preventive medicine, public health, primary care). These lapses are reflected in some of the nation’s poorer health statistics.

As the topic of health care reform gets renewed interest in the upcoming national election, serious thought needs to be given to the symbiotic and systematic relationship between wealth and health. Because many important aspects of needed and necessary health care are not profitable or highly profitable, at least in the short term, it is important to reflect on the kind of health care reform that is capable of addressing this critical paradox, and the fundamental priorities that must underlie any reform effort. To paraphrase Ben Franklin, as a nation we need to be “healthy, wealthy and wise.”

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UPDATE FROM THE PRESIDENT

**Wealth…and/or Health**

A Voyage of Discovery - Professor Steven Smith

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