Times are Changing in Academic Health Centers, or Maybe Not: Our Next National Conference

Excerpt

The exceptional papers in this issue reflect only some of the enthusiasm and value produced at the third national conference of the Association of Psychologists in Academic Health Centers (APAHC), held in Minneapolis in May of 2007. Earlier national meetings included the inaugural conference in 1995 in Georgetown, and a second meeting in 1997 in St. Louis. Descriptions of the previous conferences more than a decade ago, in comparison to these papers, reflect that a great deal has changed in academic health centers (AHCs), and yet much remains static. Fifteen years ago many predicted that by the year 2000 most of the nation’s AHCs would be insolvent due to reduced federal support and rising costs, thereby threatening their missions of education, service and research. Clearly the obituary for AHCs was written prematurely, since they have been remarkably successful in adapting to the demands of the evolving marketplace (Brown, 2008; Newton & DuBard, 2006). Yet around that time Frank (1997) also warned of the need for psychologists to develop a marketing strategy to clinicians and leaders in AHCs in order to improve their positions in these settings, but some of the papers in this series reflect that in spite of our efforts, a decade later we continue to fly below the radar of most administrators, and are often lost or overlooked in a bicultural world that favors the biological model for teaching and service delivery. …