title: The role of community-academic partnerships: implications for medical education, research, and patient care.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Well Medical College of Cornell University.
authors.forename: Carla
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Boutin-Foster
authors.forename: Erica
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Phillips
authors.forename: Ann-Gel
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Palermo
authors.forename: Ann
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Boyer
authors.forename: Princess
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Fortin
authors.forename: Tahirah
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Rashid
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Vlahov
authors.forename: Janet
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mintz
authors.forename: Gail
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Love
mesh_terms: 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