THE PIVOTAL ROLE OF THE ACADEMIC HEALTH-CENTER

Academic health centers (AHCs) now play major roles in the development , adoption, and evaluation of medical technologies; the provision of a dvice to other entities involved in medical innovation; and the educat ion of current and future practitioners. However, recent and potential health care reform initiatives could make it increasingly difficult f or AHCs to continue to play their historical roles in medical innovati on. Policymakers are examining specific options that would explicitly cover the cost of some of these services but could take away some of t he autonomy AHCs have enjoyed and could change the role of AHCs in tec hnological innovation.