The Transformation Of Academic Health Centers

The Transformation of Academic Health Centers: The Institutional Challenge to Improve Health and Well-Being in Healthcare’s Changing Landscape presents the direct knowledge and vision of accomplished academic leaders whose unique positions as managers of some of the most complex academic and business enterprises make them expert contributors. Users will find invaluable insights and leadership perspectives on healthcare, health professions education, and bio-medical and clinical research that systematically explores the evolving role of global academic health centers with an eye focused on the transformation necessary to be successful in challenging environments. The book is divided into five sections moving from the broad perspective of the role of academic health centers to the role of education, training, and disruptive technologies. It then addresses the discovery processes, improving funding models, and research efficiency. Subsequent sections address the coming changes in healthcare delivery and future perspectives, providing a complete picture of the needs of the growing and influential healthcare sector. Outlines strategies for academic health centers to successfully adapt to the global changes in healthcare and delivery Offers forward-thinking and compelling professional and personal assessments of the evolving role of academic health centers by recognized outstanding academic healthcare leaders Includes case studies and personal reflections, providing lessons learned and new recommendations to challenge leaders Provides discussions on the discovery process, improving funding models, and research efficiency

Academic health centers are currently facing enormous changes that will impact their roles in education, research, and patient care. The aging and diversity of the population will create new health care needs and demands, while rapid advances in technology will fundamentally alter the health care systems' capabilities. Pressures on health care costs, growth of the uninsured, and evidence of quality problems in health care will create a challenging environment that demands change. Academic Health Centers explores how AHCs will need to consider how to redirect each of their roles so they are able to meet the burgeoning challenges of health care and improve the health of the people they serve. The methods and approaches used in preparing health professionals, the relationship among the variety of their research programs and the design of clinical care will all need examination if they are to meet the changing demands of the coming decades. Policymakers will need to create incentives to support innovation and change in AHCs. In response, AHCs will need to increase the level of coordination and integration across their roles and the individual organizations that comprise the AHC if they are to successfully undertake the types of changes needed. Academic Health Centers lays out a strategy to start a continuing and long-term process of change.

This report describes strategies undertaken by the nation's academic health centers (AHCs) to improve management of their patient care and research missions in the face of continuing tumult in the U.S. health care system.

The leadership and management of academic health centers present challenges as complex as any in the corporate environment. A consensus is emerging about their integrated mission of education, research and service, and this book, first published in 2005 and focusing on value-driven management, provides a truly comprehensive review of these issues available. Based on reports produced by the Blue Ridge Academic Health Group, which has developed a framework for meeting the challenges of improving health in the 21st century, it also contains invited commentaries and case studies from leading authorities in and beyond the United States. It identifies the public policies and organizational practices required to maximise the health status of individuals and the population, and highlights innovative practices. It is essential reading for managers and leaders of clinical and basic science departments in academic health centers, and for all those involved in health systems management studies.

Academic Health Science Centers are complex organizations with three principal functions: the education of the next generation of health professionals; the conduct of biomedical and clinical research that leads to new treatments and approaches to disease; and the delivery of comprehensive and advanced patient care. This is the first comprehensive book that describes in detail the knowledge and skill base necessary to successfully lead these complex organizations. Written by the world's leading authorities it combines the science of leadership, organizational structure, financial and personnel management, public relations and communications, trainee and student policy, community relations, and globalization. "This volume focuses on policy considerations that provide the foundation for AHSCs to thrive. While the legislation, challenges, and strategies will change over time, the need for strong policy to influence and guide organizational and individual behavior will not. AHSCs are complex organizations that must continue to evolve to face the multifactorial nature of health care problems. How they do so will depend to a great extent not only on having appropriate policies in place but also on their success in translating these policies into effective implementation." Andrew M. Ibrahim and M. Roy Wilson, in the Foreword