The AAMC Feb. 23 launched its three year initiative aimed at Building a Systems Approach to Community Health and Health Equity for Academic Medical Centers. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)-funded project seeks to map participating institutions’ community health-focused activities into coordinated systems, and subsequently evaluate impacts for patients, communities, learners and the AAMC-member institutions.
Featured panelists included Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Office of Minority Health Director Cara James, PhD; National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) Chief of Staff Courtney Aklin, PhD; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Office of the Associate Director for Policy Deputy Director Von Nguyen, MD, MPH; and Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Division of Medicine and Dentistry Director Candice Chen, MD, MPH. The panelists each discussed their vision for a “learning community health system.”
The panel stressed that such a system would promote integrative research training, appreciate and learn from local community assets, develop a diverse set of future health leaders, and be facilitated by local and national policies that incentivize wellness, prevention and cross-sector collaboration.
More information about the initiative and how institutions can be involved, including presentations from the workshop, is available on the AAMC website.