University of Florida

The Area Health Education Center (AHEC) Program was created by Congress under the Comprehensive Health Manpower Training Act of 1971. AHECs help bring the resources of academic medicine to bear in addressing local community health needs. By their very structure, AHECs are able to respond in a flexible and creative manner to develop health initiatives and other community-based strategies to address the particular needs of the nation's most medically underserved communities. Presently, there are AHEC Programs in 47 states and the District of Columbia. Most AHEC Programs receive both state and federal funding. All AHEC Programs work toward the goal of decentralizing the educational training of health professionals in order to improve the supply, quality, utilization and efficiency of the health care workforce. This is accomplished by linking communities with academic health centers in a manner that promotes cooperative solutions to local health problems. The UF AHEC Program began in 1990 and covers 37 counties in north and north central Florida.

The UFAHEC mission is to improve access to primary health care in north Florida's medically underserved areas through academic-community educational partnerships designed to recruit, train and retain community-based health professionals.

The UF AHEC Program improves access to primary health care in the state's medically underserved areas through five main strategies:

Extending Academic Resources
Influencing Health Professions Education
Information and Support for Community Providers
Diversifying the Health Professional Work Force

To fulfill our mission, a number of community-based activities are conducted by the four AHEC Centers: Big Bend AHEC in Tallahassee, Suwannee River AHEC in Alachua, Northeast Florida AHEC in Jacksonville, and West Florida AHEC in Crestview. Each AHEC Center conducts activities directed toward meeting the national AHEC goals of improving the health care workforce diversity, distribution and quality. The UFAHEC Program's contractual affiliations with the four UF AHEC Centers support the extensive relationships with rural and underserved communities and other academic health professions programs throughout north Florida. Each of these four Centers is staffed by an Executive Director and several additional staff members. The Centers function through a governing Board of Directors composed of community leaders and health professionals from their respective service areas.