Abstract
An Area Health Education Center (AHEC) system has been established in California to address the maldistribution of physicians and other health professionals. The AHEC program uses educational incentives to recruit and retain health care personnel in underserved areas by linking the academic resources of university health science centers with local educational and clinical facilities. The medical schools, working in partnership with urban or rural AHECs throughout the state, are implementing educational programs to attact trainees and licensed professionals to work in underserved communities. The California AHEC project entered its fifth year in October 1983 with the participation of all eight medical schools and the Charles Drew Postgraduate School of Medicine, 35 other health professions schools, 17 independent AHECs and more than 400 clinical training sites. Educational programs are reaching more than 22,000 students and practicing health professionals throughout California. We review the current status of the California AHEC system and use the AHEC programs at Loma Linda University to illustrate the effect this intervention is having.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 798-802 |
Number of pages | 5 |
Journal | Western Journal of Medicine |
Volume | 140 |
Issue number | 5 |
State | Published - 1984 |