The Academic Health Center: Evolving Organizational Models By Steven A. Wartman, MD, PhDAn academic health center is defined as an accredited, degree-granting institution of higher education that consists of:
- A medical school (either allopathic or osteopathic)
- One or more other health professions schools or programs (e.g., Allied Health Sciences, Dentistry, Graduate Studies, Nursing, Pharmacy, Public Health, Veterinary Medicine.)
- An owned or affiliated relationship with a teaching hospital, health system, or other organized health care provider.
Academic health centers may be private or public institutions; they may also be university-based or free-standing. As they have evolved over the last 50 years, academic health centers have changed the nature of education in the health professions, prompted new arrangements for the delivery of health care, accelerated growth of federal involvement and influence in health professions education and research, and created new linkages between academe and all sectors of the economy.