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There is no question that the UK College of Medicine plays a vital, often life-saving, role for people of the Lexington community and the Commonwealth of Kentucky. UK’s health care mission goes beyond the clinical setting and its medical campus. Community engagement and social responsibility are important expectations of institutions of higher learning, especially of medical schools.
Nowhere is the commitment to the community deeper than in the activities of the College of Medicine.
Community-Based Faculty Program
The Community-Based Faculty Program, within the UK AHEC program, is an infrastructure dedicated to addressing the needs of approximately 1,800 community-based (Voluntary) faculty appointed in the six health professions colleges. Of these, around 900 are appointed in the College of Medicine. The community-based faculty serve as mentors, role models and teachers for all health professions students. The program provides opportunities for continued professional growth and integration into the educational process.
Area Health Education Center Program
Training opportunities in Lexington are supplemented by a comprehensive system of primary and secondary care training opportunities throughout the Commonwealth. Clinical rotations for students, residents and fellows are offered at eight Area Health Education Centers (AHECs), which also offer health education services to communities across Kentucky including, in collaboration with the University of Louisville, a broad range of health career pipeline activities designed to support young people from populations of need in the pursuit of a career in medicine or another health profession.
UK Center for Excellence in Rural Health
The UK Center for Excellence in Rural Health was established to address rural Kentucky’s health disparities and combat a chronic shortage of health professionals. The center accomplishes this through health professions education, health policy research, health care service and community engagement.
Kentucky Ambulatory Network
As a primary care practice-based research network, the Kentucky Ambulatory Network is devoted to producing knowledge useful to primary care physicians and their patients. The network is a collaborative effort, involving primary care physicians, the University of Kentucky, the University of Louisville and the Kentucky Academy of Family Physicians.
Kentucky TeleCare Network
There are more than 100 telehealth sites in Kentucky to help improve access to care for all Kentuckians. The Kentucky TeleCare Network uses videoconference technology and medical devices, such as electronic stethoscopes, to bring patients from rural Kentucky together with University of Kentucky physicians helping increase access to health care.
Service-Learning Opportunities
Medical students engage in many service-oriented projects for the less fortunate throughout the year. While students are involved in a number of outreach activities, the College of Medicine’s principal service-learning opportunities are Activate Johnson Elementary, University of Kentucky Salvation Army Clinic and Hispanic Health Fair.
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