Academic Health Center Consortium

The University of Rochester Medical Center and it's partners formed the Consortium of Academic Health Centers in 2004 to:

• Facilitate communication, disseminate best practices and foster collaborations between member organizations. Presently URMC and its counterparts; University at Buffalo, Upstate Medical University - Syracuse and University at Albany Center for Public Health Preparedness make-up the consortium. Focusing on enhancing health and Homeland Security with advances in mass casualty management.
  
• Develop a model for recruitment of academic health centers to serve as local counter-terrorism hubs at a regional level.

• Identify synergies in the pursuit of research, education and clinical service to enhance the nation's capacity to prepare and respond to terrorism and other public health emergencies.
• Define role of AHC in contributing to local, regional and state preparedness efforts to respond to terrorist threats and help strengthen the state and local public health infrastructure for biodefense and emergency preparedness.
• Establish formal relationships with state and federal agencies involved in homeland security.
• Benchmark and share best practices regarding
• integration of homeland security topics into health professions curricula,
• development of new science and technology
• optimization models for surge capacity and preparedness planning
• Identify and catalog current initiatives in Homeland Security at our nation's academic health centers
• Define and implement appropriate health and safety-related training and equipment for first- and emergency responders to help communities prepare for, protect against, respond to and recover from terrorism and other public health emergencies.

This model will subsequently be rolled out at a national level.