The South Louisiana Regional AHEC Program
LSUHSC - Louisiana State University School of Medicine - New Orleans

Established: 1988

Geographic Area Served: Southeast and Southwest Louisiana

Program Development

The Louisiana State University (LSU) School of Medicine applied for and was awarded funding in 1989 to create an early third generation AHEC. The Louisiana AHEC (LAHEC) Program Office was established in the Dean's office at the LSU School of Medicine-New Orleans and received generous support from AHEC leaders across the country. A statewide network of four AHEC Centers was developed. and appropriate cooperative agreements were crafted as each Center opened. The four LAHEC geographic regions were chosen based upon the population size allocated to each AHEC Center (about one million population each). The Centers include (in order of opening): North Louisiana
AHEC, Southeast Louisiana AHEC, Southwest Louisiana AHEC and Central Louisiana AHEC. The switch to model funding occurred in 1994 when the State legislature approved State funding to replace basic AHEC federal funding. In addition, AHEC receives significant local and other funding. The LAHEC has become an indispensable partner to the LSU Health Science Centers (HSC), in particular the schools of medicine linking Louisiana's communities to academia with an emphasis on primary care physician training and improved access to primary care.

In June of 2002 the Louisiana State University Systems office concurred with the Louisiana AHEC program office recommendation to regionalize the four Louisiana AHEC centers. This action resulted in the creation of a North AHEC region with Central and North Louisiana AHEC centers reporting to a new program office at the Louisiana State University School of Medicine in Shreveport, Louisiana. The South region includes Southwest and Southeast Louisiana Centers and they continue to report to the Louisiana State University School of Medicine in New Orleans.

The South region AHEC program office is domiciled in the office of the Dean. This new alignment allows for greater emphasis and support by AHEC centers to their respective Louisiana State University schools of medicine.