Office of Medical Education
2020 Gravier Street
Suite 602
New Orleans, LA 70112
Phone: 504-568-4006
Fax: 504-599-1453
Current AHEC Activities
Community-Based Health Professions Training Support Drawing on regional needs assessments, the South Louisiana Program
Office and centers maintain aggressive
support to the LSU schools of Medicine, Nursing, Allied Health
and Dentistry, as well as the department of Public
Health. In addition, the AHEC Centers are linked to 24 health science institutions
throughout the state to support
community-based health professions training. The Southeast Louisiana AHEC developed
and, with Southwest
AHEC, supports the current Rural Primary Care Elective program (RPCE 120).
This course includes the
departments of Medicine, Family Medicine, Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Pediatrics,
and features a summer rural
rotation for first year medical students. To date 1,745 students have participated
in these popular electives and have
had a significant impact on the number of medical students selecting primary
care residencies.
The South AHEC centers have developed and replicated
dental student and residency rotations throughout the
region. The Southwest and Southeast Louisiana AHEC Centers support the 1st
year required (ICM) Introduction to
Clinical Medicine. The Southwest and Southeast Louisiana AHECs helped developed
the required 3rd year Family
Medicine clerkship at LSU School of Medicine in New Orleans. The South region
Centers are currently involved in
the new curriculum design and have assisted in the establishment of a primary
care rural track for medical students
committed to returning to rural primary care practice. In addition the South
region AHECs supports the evaluation
of the medical school curriculum and are active participants in LCME and
ACGME accreditation.
The AHEC centers help support 165 primary care preceptor
sites, and provided 2,534 AHEC student weeks of
training in 2001-2002. This represents more than 19 percent of the total
medical undergraduate clinical education.
Disadvantaged and Minority Recruitment Career Development Kids in Health Careers (KIHC) activities are major initiatives
for the South region AHEC program. Minority
populations in New Orleans represent the largest pool of future health care
professionals and 14 AHEC-supported
programs are linked to KIHC efforts. The new medical school curriculum at LSU
School of Medicine-New Orleans
requires all first year medical students to visit selected inner city schools
and describe different health careers.
The South region AHEC centers offered 22 recruitment/career
development programs for 2001-2002. During the
same period, more than 5,000 students participated in health career awareness
programs. In 2001, LAHEC published
its Health Career Handbook in CD-ROM format, which contains information on
74 health careers, as well as
financial information, educational institutions by location, and salaries.
In 2001-2002, more than 1,400 C/Ds and
hard copy health career directories were distributed. The health career web
site: www.mylahealthcareers.com is
maintained by the all Louisiana AHEC Centers. The
Southwest Louisiana AHEC has been the lead center, in partnership with
the Department of Health and Hospitals, in
facilitating the annual Medical Louisiana Job Fair. SW Louisiana AHEC is
leading recruitment activities associated
with the Robert Wood Johnson Southern Rural Access Grant. Both of these
activities bring students, residents and
communities together by matching interests and needs. The South region
AHECs developed and supports the "Day
with the Doc' program that brings rural and underserved Junior High school
students in contact with 2nd year
medical students at the medical school in New Orleans.
Continuing Education
for Health Professionals For the year 2001-2002,67 continuing education programs were developed
and provided to 1,594 providers,
representing 451 contact hours. In addition, 3 distance learning programs
were facilitated for 108 providers.
Each South region AHEC Center maintains a freestanding libriary or link
to a hospital library with appropriately
prepared medical librarians. These learning resource activities are critical
to reducing isolation and encouraging
health professionals to practice in rural or underserved areas. Dentists,
dental hygienists, social workers, nurses,
physicians and allied health professionals access these services regularly,
and more than 60,000 searches have been
performed. Both centers are current recipients of National Library of
Medicine outreach grant awards.
Community Economic Development The South region AHEC centers are linked to myriad state,
federal, private and local initiatives that promote access
to primary care. The economic derivatives of these activities and awards
are significant, including the Robert Wood
Johnson Southern Rural Access Grant activities at Southwest and Southeast
LAHEC Centers. They are also linked
to the Office of Rural Health Policy (ORHP) De/ta Initiative, which will
provide grant monies to 29 designated
'delta' parishes to improve access to prima ry care through network development.
The Rural Loan Fund, a component of the RWJ grant has generated over
$12,000,000.00 in credit facility requests in rural Louisiana to
improve access to primary care. Other grant activities include
rural AIDS prevention, Ryan White Title I and II,
USDA, Office of Public Health and Department of Health and Hospital grant
awards. It has been well documented
that early exposure to primary care, facilitated by the AHEC Program,
has resulted in more students selecting
primary care disciplines which have a profound economic impact in rural
communities.
National Health Service Corps The South region AHEC Program Office maintains the lead relationship
with the National Health Service Corps and
supported by and the two regional AHEC Centers. We have established a
relationship as a NHSC "Ambassador".
The Program Office was supportive of requests for continuation of federal
support for NHSC program funding, and
the centers offer a direct link to the State Loan Repayment Program and
provide other valuable services for the
recruitment and retention of NHSC scholars and providers.
Public Health The South region AHECs have taken an aggressive lead in linking
the Louisiana National Guard and the Office of
Emergency Preparedness to the LSUHSC. This has resulted in the creation
of training scenarios using computer
driven human simulation for ebola, anthrax, late smallpox, etc. Portions
of these training scenarios have been
successfully tested during the recent Super bowl, Mardi Gras, and other
community first responder training events in
Louisiana. South region AHEC centers are also grant recipients of rural
AIDS prevention programs.
The South region AHEC Centers are directly linked
to genetics research for diseases unique to the Acadian
populations in Louisiana. In addition, both AHEC Centers are engaged
in rural AIDS prevention, tobacco cessation
linked to AmeriCorps, and Tar Wars activities with the American Academy
of Family Physicians. South region
AHEC Centers have programs targeting rural children and women's health
education, including cervical and breast
cancer outreach, and mental health transportation activities. The Southeast
Louisiana AHEC has key
responsibilities for Farm Medic first responder training that is being
expanded to include human simulation training
for first responders and other consequence personnel.
Behavioral, Mental Health and Substance Abuse The South region AHECs initiated rural electives for medical students
interested in mental and public health.
AHEC Center staff assisted with a Pediatric Faculty Development grant
that included a substance abuse component
for pediatric residents. The south region AHECs created the Wheel of
Health initiative to stress to elementary
school children the positive health aspects of avoiding alcohol, tobacco
and other substances. The South region
AHEC supports MD-MPH students with "capstone" programming in rural and
underserved locations and activities.
Migrant, Immigrant, Refugee and Other Displaced Populations The
South region AHEC centers have taken the lead in the creation of
a Migrant Health Clinic in Louisiana. Funded by a corporate foundation
grant it provides a bilingual primary care physician and use 'promotores'
for MSFW
outreach and translation. Capstone students are often engaged and recently
completed a compendium of migrant
farm worker populations in Louisiana. In addition, the South region
AHECs support the homeless clinics staffed by
medical students from Tulane and LSU-New Orleans. These clinics provide
medical, dental and social services as
well as pharmacy support.
Major Partners Major partners of the South region AHEC program office and
centers are the Louisiana Health Science Center- New
Orleans that includes the School of Medicine in New Orleans, LSU School
of Dentistry in New Orleans, the school
of Allied Health in New Orleans, the Graduate School and the LSU School
of Nursing. Additional academic
partners are the numerous schools of nursing and other institutions
of higher learning throughout south Louisiana,
and the Tulane University schools of Medicine, Public Health and Tropical
Medicine. In addition the AHECs take active roles in the American and
Louisiana Academies of Family Medicine.
Key
relationships involve the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals,
Office of Public Health, Office of
Mental Health, Louisiana Rural Health Association, State Office of
Rural Health; Louisiana Primary Care
Association, Louisiana Public Health Institute, the USDA, ORHP and
the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
AHEC Center directors and staff hold board positions and other leadership
positions in several partner organizations, and have established
long-standing and important relationships with local and national
philanthropic foundations.