The purpose of the Southeastern Florida AHEC Program is to improve the distribution, supply, quality, utilization, and efficiency of health personnel and to encourage regionalization and decentralization of educational responsibilities and services of health professions schools. By linking the academic resources of the sponsoring health sciences center (Southeastern College of Osteopathic Medicine) and approximately a dozen other health professional training programs from various affiliating colleges and universities (e.g., Florida International University, Florida Atlantic University, Southeastern College of Pharmaceutical Sciences) with local planning, community, and clinical resources, the AHEC has developed comprehensive education and training for students, faculty, and practitioners in rural and urban underserved areas. The prime focus will continue to be upon: (1) regionalized recruitment of students from underserved areas into health professions training programs; (2) decentralized training of students from the health science centers into AHEC underserved areas to gain exposure in these areas; and (3) enhancement of the professional life to improve retention of practitioners in underserved areas through increased availability of local resources such as library/learning resources and on-site continuing education.
