Now Is Our Time to Act: Why Academic Medicine Must Embrace Community Collaboration as Its Fourth Mission

Abstract

In his Leadership Plenary at the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) annual meeting, "Learn Serve Lead 2020: The Virtual Experience," president and CEO David Skorton emphasized that the traditional tripartite mission of academic medicine-medical education, clinical care, and research-is no longer enough to achieve health justice for all. Today, collaborating with diverse communities deserves equal weight among academic medicine's missions. This means going beyond "delivering care" to establishing and expanding ongoing, two-way community dialogues that push the envelope of what is possible in service to what is needed. It means appreciating community assets and creating ongoing pathways for listening to and learning from the needs, lived experiences, perspectives, and wisdom of patients, families, and communities. It means working with community-based organizations in true partnership to identify and address needs, and jointly develop, test, and implement solutions. This requires bringing medical care and public/population health concepts together and addressing upstream fundamental causes of health inequities. The authors call on academic medical institutions to do more to build a strong network of collaborators across public and population health, government, community groups, and the private sector. We in academic medicine must hold ourselves accountable for weaving community collaborations consistently throughout research, medical education, and clinical care. The authors recognize the AAMC can do better to support its member institutions in doing so and discuss new initiatives that signify a shift in emphasis through the association's new strategic plan and AAMC Center for Health Justice. The authors believe every area of academic medicine could grow and better serve communities by listening and engaging more and bringing medical care, public health, and other sectors closer together.