What is your best definition of an academic medical center.
According to the American Hospital Association: a
cademic medical centers fulfill critical social missions, including educating and training future medical professionals; conducting state-of-the-art research; caring for the poor and uninsured; and optimizing services to provide highly specialized clinical care to the most severely ill and injured patients.
Does the hospital need to have its own medical school?
An AMC is a university-based teaching hospital, with a medical school.
Do you think it's any place that does a good job teaching residents?
You will encounter countless medical specialists, tenured/adjunct/clinical faculty, researchers, nursing staff, pharmacists, psychologists, administrators and assorted other staff working at an AMC, including:
Attending Physician: faculty or teaching staff appointment, has completed all required professional training, and is board-certified.
Resident: medical school graduate, is licensed, and is completing the hands-on training, called a residency, needed to become a physician.
Fellow: has completed basic residency training, but needs sub-specialty training to become board-certified in a specialty area.
Medical Students: spend time as observers or learning how to do things, (e.g., H&P).
Does it need a VA/University Hospital?
An AMC is a university-based major teaching hospital. It can also be involved in providing professional/research services with VA hospitals.
