USD School of Medicine Helps Lead Effort to Boost States Health Care Workforce
Leadership from USD’s medical school heads the Area Health Education Center (AHEC) in South Dakota, an initiative that connects high school and college students and others to health care professions, with an emphasis on steering those students to work in rural and medically underserved locations in the state. AHEC now has offices in Yankton and Aberdeen and will soon open an office in Rapid City on the campus of Western Dakota Tech.
AHEC, a federally funded program helping inspire, educate and generate health care professionals, was founded in 1971. AHEC’s South Dakota affiliate was established in 2009.
“The addition of the West River AHEC Center will provide even more opportunities for South Dakota AHEC to make strides in healthcare workforce development across the state, and we are excited to partner with entities in western South Dakota, “ said Dr. Susan Anderson, SD AHEC program director and chair of family medicine at USD’s medical school.
Anderson described a broad collection of engaged and committed partners and collaborators working with USD to help establish the West River AHEC office. AHEC’s West River partner organizations contribute meeting and program spaces as well as a variety of additional resources to support AHEC’s work.
According to Anderson, it is a significant mission of USD’s Sanford School of Medicine and the university’s School of Health Sciences to supply physicians and health care professionals to our state and to our state’s rural places. “USD and the medical school are involved in a variety of activities and strategies to build South Dakota’s health care workforce,” Anderson explained. “AHEC is a critical component of that effort.”
