Latest News

Correspondence

12.15.2008

AAHC writes to Secretary Designee Senator Daschle, Acting CMS Administrator Kerry Weems on
the need to reform the clinical trial policy and change administrative structures at CMS to address research

12.15.2008

The AAHC, along with the Ad Hoc Group for Medical Research, called on President-elect Obama to include at least $1.2 billion in NIH funding in any immediate economic stimulus effort….and to appoint a permanent NIH director who understands the complexity and breadth of NIH’s mission.

Press Releases

11.10.2008

New Administration, Congress Must Act to Avert Health Workforce Crisis

10.21.2008

AAHC Names Texas A&M’s Dr. Nancy W. Dickey Chair of the Board of Directors

9.19.2008

New AAHC Guide to Emergency Preparedness and Disaster Response

Reports

12.10.2008

Promise and Power of Academic Health Centers

A new international collaborative can ensure that academic health centers have a voice in international matters affecting health, research, and the economy..

06.16.2008

HIPAA Creating Barriers to Research and Discovery

AAHC Report Recommends Alternatives to Protect Privacy and Advance Healthcare .

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.

Managing Emergency Preparedness is a concise guide to a well-organized, consolidated emergency response plan, as well as offering effective ways academic health centers and government leaders can help ensure that institutions and communities can respond to an array or emergencies and natural disasters.
Download (pdf)

UPDATE FROM THE PRESIDENT

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

Health Care and the New Administration

Health care received a reasonable amount of attention in the recent election cycle. At one point, it was considered by some pundits to be a potentially dominant issue, since both candidates had considerably different approaches to the topic. But the dramatic changes in the economy seemed to have clearly (and appropriately) taken the limelight.

So where does this leave us with regards to the prospect of substantive health care reform? The Administration’s initial approach appears to focus mainly on issues of cost and access. There is relatively little about structural or functional health care reform. While improving access to care and controlling the costs of care are critically important, it imperative to consider changing the way the system works, so as to encourage medical care that both based on need and the best available evidence. Doing so will ultimately control costs while improving overall health status. There has also been very little discussion about the health workforce, which is the ultimate underpinning for any health system. We can make all the changes we like to our health system, but if we do not have an appropriately trained and adequate number of health professionals to provide needed care, the desired outcomes of any health reform program are not likely to be achieved. There is a tendency to think that the market can solve many of our problems in health care. But this is only partially true, because the market is not particularly adept at solving social problems (after all, the market did not give us seat belts or anti-smoking legislation; nor does it protect us against greed). I hope that the new President, along with Congress, will carefully rethink the relatively unregulated approach we have taken to many goods and services (health care included). I urge them to strike an appropriate balance between market forces and regulation, one that protects the public while promoting innovation and appropriate entrepreneurship. Health care and the health workforce must be given a very high priority as a critical investment for the nation’s health and well-being and, ultimately, its economic security.