Washington, D.C., February 7, 2001--The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have entered into a cooperative agreement that will enhance the involvement of the academic medical community in CDC's extramural research activities.

"The opportunities afforded by this new funding mechanism will permit medical schools and teaching hospitals to significantly augment their contributions to the nation's public health agenda," said AAMC President Jordan J. Cohen, M.D.

Under this cooperative agreement, the AAMC will facilitate programmatic activities between academic medical centers and the CDC's various centers, institutes, and offices (CIOs). The AAMC and CDC will attempt to build upon the existing collaborations between the disciplines of medicine and public health. Medicine and public health are two interdependent and complementary disciplines that diverged from one another in practice and training early in the last century; however, many recent efforts have been initiated to increase collaboration between them.

The AAMC has been meeting with CDC officials to work out the policies and procedures of the cooperative agreement. Some of the research activities include:

• Activities to promote the teaching of prevention and public health in academic medical centers;
• Activities to promote the training of public health/prevention researchers within academic medical centers;
• Activities to increase the number of under-represented minority students in medical schools;
• Activities to eliminate health disparities.

Through this cooperative agreement, CDC seeks to support extramural research through investigator-initiated proposals and by seeking proposals in areas of programmatic interest to the CIOs within the CDC. Such proposals are solicited by working with partnering organizations under the terms of the cooperative agreement.

The Association of American Medical Colleges represents the 125 accredited U.S. medical schools; the 16 accredited Canadian medical schools; some 400 major teaching hospitals, including 74 Veterans Administration medical centers; 91 academic and professional societies representing nearly 88,000 faculty members; and the nation's 67,000 medical students and 102,000 residents. Additional information about the AAMC and U.S. medical schools and teaching hospitals available at www.aamc.org/newsroom.

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