An academic health science(s) centre (AHSC) is a partnership between one or more universities and healthcare providers focusing on research, clinical services, education and training. AHSCs help to ensure that research breakthroughs lead to direct clinical benefits for patients. In 2005, the top sixteen ranked hospitals in the US were all AHSCs^[1].

The organisational structures that comprise an AHSC can take a variety of forms, ranging from simple partnerships to fully-integrated organisations with a single management board. (The latter are much rarer.)

Examples around the world include:

• Johns Hopkins Medicine, Baltimore, United States
• Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
• Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, Netherlands
• Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts, United States
• Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, Canada
• Texas Medical Center, Houston, United States
• University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Newark, United States

An AHSC may also be known as an:

• academic health science(s) system
• academic health science(s) partnership

[edit] AHSCs in the United Kingdom

In 2007, as part of his review of healthcare in London, Professor Lord Darzi stated:

London needs to explore the model of Academic Health Science Centres being followed by other large cities if it wants to be at the cutting-edge of research and clinical excellence... A new form of university/hospital partnership is needed to maintain the UK’s academic institutions at the forefront of the global marketplace where they compete for grants, recognition and staff^[1].

As a result, a number of new partnerships have been created^[2]:

• Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust (a fully-merged and integrated organisation)
• Manchester Academic Health Science Centre (a partnership)
• UCL Partners (a partnership)^[3]
• King's Health Partners^[4] comprising King's College London, Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust
• As yet unnamed partnership^[5] including Barts and The London NHS Trust and Queen Mary, University of London

[edit] References

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