Recent News
Reach out and Read
Reach Out and Read (ROR) is a national non-profit organization that promotes early literacy by giving new books to children and advice to parents about the importance of reading aloud in pediatric exam rooms across the nation. Click here for pictures from a recent ROR event in St. Tammany parish.
Our history
The Federal AHEC Program began in the early 70's and the Louisiana AHEC was activated in 1988 through a grant written by Louisiana State University Medical Center.
The Louisiana AHEC system began operation in 1988 through the efforts of the LSU School of Medicine which petitioned the federal government for funding. Four centers across the state were opened on a staggered basis with Southeast Louisiana beginning in 1989. The Louisiana Centers have all completed their six year cycles of federal funding and are now supported through cooperative agreements with the LSU School of Medicine.
- Serve as a bridge between Schools of Health Professions, health providers, and communities.
- Conduct “needs assessments” to determine health care manpower needs and help communities fill those through a “grow your own approach”.
- Organize links with others to provide clinical training for students in medicine, nursing, allied health, and dentistry.
- 10% of students medical education facilitate outside of the medical school.
- Recruit and retain health care professionals in rural and underserved areas.
- Educate and attract students, especially those under-represented, to careers in medicine, nursing, dentistry, and allied health fields.
- Sponsor adult and student health career fairs, summer health career camps, and elementary school health education programs.
- Supported the Louisiana Health Careers Handbook and www.lahealthcareers.com a statewide resource, which describes health care occupations and educational requirements within the state.
- Establish and maintain Learning Resource Centers for electronic access to worldwide medical databases and information retrieval via Library holdings.
- Present affordable, high quality educational seminars on health care issues for professionals and the public.
- Prepare and manage grants related to health and well-being of Louisiana citizens.