Issue Briefs

Periodic free and downloadable reports that examine current topics and concerns impacting healthcare policy and academic health center leadership, organization, management, and operations. 


 

The Global Academic Health Center

Examining the Global Landscape of Academic Health Centers: Future Directions for AAHCI

(2012) This issue brief concludes that, because academic health centers worldwide share many of the same challenges, developing a comprehensive and focused strategic plan for AAHC’s international arm is both needed and timely…

Global Operations Require Strategic Assessment

(2012) A broad range of issues—from human resources to institutional liability—impact academic health center practices and policies, calling attention to the complexity of global operations and the ongoing need for institutional leadership, guidance, and strategic direction in these changing times…

Introducing the International Resource Center: A Resource to Enhance Academic Health Centers' International Operations

(2011) To support the effectiveness of academic health centers as they build their national and international operations, AAHC is working to provide guidance and resources to enhance the management, support, and development of academic health centers’ global activities…

The Compelling Value Proposition of Academic Health Centers

(2010) Academic health centers represent a unique combination of teaching, research, and patient care. This blend of academe and clinical care creates a perspective in which these multiple roles are not disparate, but rather contribute to a whole that is truly greater than the sum of its parts…

Academic Health Centers: A Time to Respond to the New Global Economy

(2009) A time of great economic turmoil challenges all nations to define new roadmaps, find new answers, and set new directions. The clear message from a global perspective is that nations are linked to one another, and this interconnectedness increasingly applies to and has implications for academic health centers…

The Promise and Power of Academic Health Centers

(2008) While academic health centers contribute significantly to health and economic growth worldwide, there is a compelling need for them to work collectively on the world stage to enhance their fundamental missions of education, patient care, and research…

The Multinational Academic Health Center

(2007) Academic health centers have a unique opportunity to work in partnerships with other academic health centers and systems worldwide. In doing so, these institutions can come together as agents of change by serving the global community and be among the critical forces shaping the 21st century…

 

The Research Enterprise: Management, Clinical Compliance

Research Compliance Education and Training Programs: Responding to a New Regulatory World

(2009) Education and training programs have long been integral to clinical research at academic health centers. However, a new world of regulation, with an ever-increasing number of mandates and requirements for institutions and staff, is changing the nature and scope of the education and training function…

Clinical Trials Offices: What’s New In Research Administration?

(2009) Management of clinical trial operations, viewed as critical to the sustainability and growth of the research enterprise, is among the challenging tasks for academic health centers because of the multitude of regulatory requirements and administrative procedures that must be addressed before, during, and after a clinical trial takes place…

The HIPAA Privacy Rule: Lacks Patient Benefit, Impedes Research Growth

(2009) Research was not intended to be governed by the HIPAA Privacy Rule, but neither was it exempted from the regulation. However, the new constructs and restrictions on information mandated by the Rule have had untold consequences for the conduct of research and the advance of science and discovery in the United States…

HIPAA Creating Barriers to Research and Discovery

(2008) What is often not recognized beyond the research community is the negative impact—often unintended—of the myriad regulations and mandates such as HIPAA. Ultimately, societal interests are at stake when unintended barriers hamper research processes and progress…

The Clinical Trials Landscape

(2007) Given the growth and expansion of clinical trials at many academic health centers, data on the volume, scope, and finances of clinical trials operations is of interest when examining research, compliance, or financial administrative infrastructure within the academic health center enterprise. This report provides a snapshot of the state of clinical trials based on an academic health center survey…

Investing in Clinical Trial Compliance

(2007) The number of clinical trials is rapidly increasing both in the U.S. and throughout the world given the need for new treatments and cures for disease and disability. Simultaneous expansion of regulations governing such trials is placing tremendous strain on the administration and management of clinical trials and their associated compliance functions within academic health centers. Where should academic health centers focus resource allocations?

Intellectual Property Bundling: An Opportunity for Academic Health Centers?

(2007) This report examines the scope and growth of collaborative research along with the current shortcomings in the patent system, which may necessitate the pursuit of IP bundling to maintain economic value…

 

Health Policy

Adjusting for Life Circumstances is Essential for Successful Healthcare Payment Reform

(2015) This report considers the impact of environmental, social, and behavioral determinants of health on the academic health center tripartite mission as well as strategic considerations…

Strategic Implications of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act for Academic Health Centers

(2012)With much attention and uncertainty surrounding the ultimate impact of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), it is clear that many of its provisions will affect academic health centers… 

State Actions and the Health Workforce Crisis

(2007) This report provides an extensive examination of multiple state policies and programs, revealing that state action on workforce issues is critical not only in resolving shortages, but also in developing and sustaining a workforce for the future…

 

Management and Operations

Leadership and Strategic Communications: Optimizing Academic Health Center Messaging

(2012) The issue brief focuses on the fundamental changes taking place in the communications landscape, and how academic health center leadership needs to take advantage of the growing array of modalities to optimize outreach, engagement, and integration…

The Business Case for Academic Health Centers Addressing Environmental, Social, and Behavioral Determinants of Health

(2011) This report recognizes that analysis of this important issue must be future-facing, focusing less on the healthcare marketplace as we know it today and more on the anticipated evolution of the healthcare system over the short and long term… 

Making the Business Case for Interprofessional Education and Training

(2011) As the healthcare system changes, it will demand greater collaboration to more effectively provide for and manage patient needs. While the case for interprofessional education and practice has rightly focused on the benefits of improved care, there is also a strong business case to be made…

The Business Case for Optimized Academic Health Center-specific Metrics

(2011) This issue brief frames the basic arguments supporting development of optimized metrics for academic health centers and considers the policy context in which such metrics would be implemented…

Academic Health Centers and Community Health Centers: The Landscape of Current Partnerships

(2010)Through community outreach and local partnerships, academic health centers are expanding the realm in which they educate, research, and provide care. A significant component of academic health center community involvement is the collaborative relationship with community health centers…

The Academic Health Center: Evolving Organizational Models

(2007) 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…

Academic Health Center CEOs Say Faculty Shortages Threaten Health Workforce

(2007)Academic health center leaders note that worsening faculty shortages in academic health centers are threatening the health professions education infrastructure – including reduced programs and limited enrollment…