In challenging economic times, leaders from 15 institutions from Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and the UK met to discuss the urgent issues facing their academic health centers.  Participants found significant commonality on issues related to leadership, organization, and governance.  With the increasingly global nature of health, it was understood that education, research, and health issues must be addressed in a global manner. Participants expressed that AAHC International™ was an appropriate organization to work through to develop a framework for collaboration.

Participants also noted the compelling need to work across the traditional silos of education, research, and patient care.  In the face of challenging economic conditions, the strongest and most successful models of academic health centers are those built upon integrated structures with aligned missions.  With this in mind, academic health centers worldwide can work to align their missions, increase the efficiency of their operations, and ultimately improve health and well-being.