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The Role of Academic Health Centers
in Health Care Reform

2006 Annual Meeting
San Antonio, Texas

Education: Can We Get Buy-In Under Health Reform?

Dan W. Rahn, MD, President, Medical College of Georgia; Eugene S. Schneller, PhD, Professor, School of Health Management and Policy, Arizona State University

Speakers focused on questions related to how health reform might include education reform, and concluded that education must be part of any sustainable health reform initiative.

"Academic health centers are responsible for setting the national agenda for health professions education and health workforce issues."

Dr. Rahn stated that academic health centers are responsible for setting the national agenda for health professions education and health workforce issues.
The performance of health systems (e.g., outcomes, quality, and patient satisfaction) is deeply intertwined with health professions education and the health workforce.
This link must be made very clear. The health sector is sustaining the U.S economy and the workforce is at the core of expansion, progress, and sustainability.Any health system envisioned for the future will be populated by graduates of academic health centers.

"The health sector is sustaining the U.S economy and the workforce is at the core of expansion, progress, and sustainability."

Thus, academic health centers will need to ensure that the mix and skills of health professionals is appropriate to make such a system function properly. U.S. policy is deeply rooted in entrepreneurialism, autonomy, and competition, stated Rahn. The nation was built on these fundamentals with the first settlement being an exercise in profit gain. The U.S. is a very business-oriented culture with a strong faith in self-reliance rather than obligation to others, according to some analysts.

The nation's history reflects strong beliefs in the free market and decision making at the local level—all of which is reflected in the health care system today. Finally, the U.S. is anchored by a belief in equal opportunity, which also is highlighted in its approach to health care.

The U.S. system holds its strengths in:

Dr. Schneller discussed how academic health centers can take the lead on health reform and work to reform education at the same time. Successful changes in industry have come from careful scrutiny of the value and supply chains in which one is engaged, according to Schneller.

For reform to be successful, academic health centers must: better differentiate their services and how they can be brought to the patient; improve the market the value provided by their services; capture patient reserves to cross subsidize education; form alliances; continue to be knowledge brokers, not just disseminators of knowledge (charge for the intellectual property); get paid for performance; and become empowered and accountable.

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