Community Empowerment
Health care institutions have an important role to play as stewards of the communities and populations they serve. Academic medical centers do more than provide care to patients and provide physicians and nurses with a professional home in which to build a career. They serve as local and regional hubs for scientific discovery, innovation, and workforce development. In these centers lie the greatest hopes of developing new solutions to address the most pressing health challenges facing the community.
In our work around the globe we see institutions looking to achieve the following as they establish themselves as regional centers:
- Develop programs that extend their health care and education missions to addressing the needs of rural and underserved populations
- Fostering research geared to addressing regional, national, and local disease burdens
- Catalzing the development of health care delivery innovations that can increase access to care and create low-cost interventions
- Become a center for workforce development not only by developing and operating medical, nursing, and allied schools, but also by identifying new avenues for career development and creating the programs to build those careers
- Assume an advocacy role by creating forums and networks for knowledge sharing and professional development
