The role of community-academic partnerships: implications for medical education, research, and patient care.
OBJECTIVE
Despite several studies demonstrating the benefits of community-academic partnerships, their value to academic health centers (AHCs) is often viewed with skepticism by some in the academic community.


OBJECTIVE
This paper examines the roles of community organizations and the mechanisms by which they can enhance the AHC missions of education, research, and patient care.


CONCLUSIONS
As lay educators, community organizations can contribute to medical education by exposing students to diverse cultural perspectives. As community advocates, they can facilitate the research process by helping to frame culturally relevant research questions, by ensuring that research survey instruments are culturally and linguistically appropriate, and that research findings are disseminated to community stakeholders. As lay health workers, they can facilitate health care delivery by providing a link to hard-to-reach populations through their outreach and referral initiatives.


CONCLUSIONS
Forming partnerships between community organizations and AHCs can support the missions of AHCs and simultaneously develop and strengthen community capacity.
Boutin-Foster
Carla
C
Well Medical College of Cornell University.
Phillips
Erica
E
Palermo
Ann-Gel
AG
Boyer
Ann
A
Fortin
Princess
P
Rashid
Tahirah
T
Vlahov
David
D
Mintz
Janet
J
Love
Gail
G
D000046:Academic Medical Centers; D003153:Community Health Services; D055812:Community-Based Participatory Research; D003159:Community-Institutional Relations; D054521:Cultural Competency; D004501:Education, Medical; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006801:Humans; D009519:New York City; D057170:Translational Research, Biomedical