THE NEED FOR COMPREHENSIVE DATA ON EDUCATIONAL AFFILIATIONS BETWEEN ACADEMIC HEALTH CENTERS AND MANAGED CARE ORGANIZATIONS

Because of the emerging dominance of managed care, it is important to encourage the development of partnerships and affiliations between aca demic health centers (AHCs) and managed care organizations (MCOs) to t rain tomorrow's physicians to operate effectively in the new health ca re environment. But to what extent do such relationships exist now? In 1996, the authors sought to identify existing databases on the availa bility and extent of existing education partnerships and affiliations between AHCs and MCOs and the availability of such information to poli cymakers, the educational community, students, and residents. Despite a thorough search of the literature and interviews with representative s of education and practice organizations and with other experts in th e medical education and managed care fields, the authors found no cent ralized or even partly centralized database on opportunities for train ing in managed care settings or on AHC-MCO partnerships. However, anec dotal evidence revealed eight such partnerships, each different from t he others, that can serve as models for future partnerships; these are described. The authors speculate about why there are not more data de scribing AHC-MCO partnerships. They conclude by stating that the healt h care and health education industries have a variety of professional associations that could work together to assemble and make available s uch data to help build the educational and information infrastructure needed to train future physicians.