An international association of academic health centres.

摘要

Governments around the world struggle with the challenges of providing good-quality health care, but knowledge on which to base sound rational decisions is in short supply. This lack of knowledge has presented a convincing case for a new organisational model that more closely links academic medicine and clinical practice. Academic medicine-along with its access to multiple disciplines, including the engineering, physical, and social sciences-holds a critical key to developing solutions to the challenges of effective health care. This alignment of academe and clinical care can realise what has become known as the virtuous cycle, whereby research, education, and clinical care are viewed as increasingly interdependent and as making each other better. This point is exemplified by the ability to bridge the discovery-care continuum, as discussed by Victor Dzau and colleagues in The Lancet today.This trend is occurring in many parts of the world at a time when academic health centres are being increasingly recognised as major drivers of theeconomy and as international patient-referral centres. The rapid globalisation of health care has accelerated this trend and offers a unique opportunity for such centres to worktogetherto improve global health. Atthis important juncture of need and opportunity, these centres can position themselves as agents of change that personify the ideal that health care is crucial for a nation's welfare, as they work for both economic and societal progress.