AHEC: Building New Relationships for the Future

This quotation certainly applies to our personal lives but is immensely appropriate for AHEC. The strength and viability of the most successful AHECs around the nation have come from their ability to build relationships. Relationship building became an obvious necessity within my first year with AHEC. Now, nearing the end of my fourth year, we are beginning to see results and opportunities. Gradually, I am hearing a change in discussions from “What’s an AHEC?” to “We should include AHEC.” Examples of relationships that are being established include: The Center for Leadership in Public Health and Community Medicine in the Division of Community Health Sciences at NEOUCOM, The Pennsylvania-Ohio Public Health Training Center at The Ohio State University(OSU), Mahoning Valley Workforce Development Project at Youngstown State University (YSU), and last but most important a renewed relationship with NEOUCOM. Briefly, let me tell you about these relationships.

• AHEC will provide support for the Center for Leadership in Public Health and Community Medicine by expanding NEOUCOM’s distance learning connections to include affiliated health departments and clinics throughout northeast Ohio, with particular emphasis on rural health departments, and develop educational opportunities to tie them directly to the academic resources of NEOUCOM and the center.
• The Pennsylvania-Ohio Public Health Training Center located at (OSU) has identified AHEC as a training partner in northeast Ohio. This relationship will improve the delivery and accessibility of training for public health practitioners in our region.
• Eastern Ohio AHEC, located at YSU Metro Campus, has become a partner with more than 50 other organizations that form the Northeast Ohio HealthForce Coalition which brings together education, business and service agencies to recruit, educate and train individuals for healthcare jobs that will fill healthcare shortages in the Mahoning Valley.
• NEOUCOM is in the process of evaluating and transforming its medical curriculum. In the recent past, AHEC has been a silent partner in medical education but now has the opportunity to establish a more visible integrated purpose in the education of medical students.

These are just a few examples of opportunities that have come to AHEC through building relationships. Developing linkages between the academic center and community is what AHECs do best. Building relationships for the future is as simple as saying, “Hey, let’s include our AHEC.”