Last month in Tulsa, Oklahoma, VA’s National Academic Affiliations Council met at the Ernest K. Childers VA Outpatient Clinic to further advance the largest public-private partnership in VA’s history, harnessing many of its diverse partnerships to meet their goals.
The 14-member council meets quarterly to create recommendations and advise VA leadership on matters affecting relationships between VA and the health professions community.
Participants included VA offices, the Indian Health Service, Oklahoma State University and Cherokee Nation.
Dr. James Hildreth, Meharry Medical College president and chairman of the council, spoke of the importance of enhancing partnerships to accomplish the council’s mission.
“This council meeting was of particular significance as we joined with many different organizations to better our partnerships with academic affiliates and reshape the VA health care system for continued excellence. I enjoyed the collaborative effort and look forward to seeing policy enhancements based on the council’s recommendations,” Hildreth said.
As part of the meeting, council members received tours of the Oklahoma State University’s College of Osteopathic Medicine at the Cherokee Nation, W.W. Hastings Hospital and the Cherokee Nation Outpatient Health Center in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. The tours highlighted the importance of various organizations such as VA, academic affiliates and local communities working together to better health care practices.
Office Of Academic Affiliations Chief Academic Affiliations Officer Dr. Marjorie Bowman spoke of the incredible work that comes from the council collaborations. “It’s all about asking, ‘How can we make a difference for Veterans and for the country?’ This meeting was truly rejuvenating in bringing us back to our core mission of making and strengthening those academic partnerships to better health care in our nation,” Bowman said.
The mission of training future health professionals for VA and the nation, established more than 75 years ago, is one of VA’s four statutory missions. Nearly 70% of all U.S. physicians complete training in a VA facility, and more than 118,000 health professions trainees in over 60 clinical disciplines train at VA each year as they care for Veterans.
