Salt Lake City, Utah— Michael L. Good, MD, CEO of University of Utah Health, executive dean of the Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine at the University of Utah, and the senior vice president for health sciences, has been selected to chair the steering committee of the AAMC Alliance of Academic Health Centers (the Alliance), an affinity group of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). University of Utah Health is a member of the AAMC, a nonprofit association dedicated to transforming health through medical education, health care, medical research, and community collaborations.
The Alliance provides a unique platform for academic health center senior leaders to network, share insights and experiences with colleagues, and access customized resources that enhance strategic knowledge and skills to oversee their multi-faceted institutions. "The Alliance significantly advances how we support health leaders and organizations so they can better serve patients," Dr. Good said. "I am honored to serve in this role and look forward to engaging colleagues across the nation and globe to learn how we can better partner to meet their needs."
Dr. Good is a distinguished anesthesiologist, academic leader, and noted inventor of the human patient simulator. He works to assure the professional and educational success of more than 22,000 faculty, staff, and students at University of Utah Health. He has led the organization through a period of remarkable growth, evidenced by the construction of a half-dozen major new facilities, the implementation of transformational initiatives, and the recruitment of dozens of new leaders and faculty at U of U Health.
The Alliance works closely with the Alliance of Academic Health Centers International (AAHCI), focusing on global perspectives and innovations that support leaders at academic health centers worldwide. “Dr. Good is an outstanding leader who is widely respected for his ability to lead during crises on national and local levels,” said Steven L. Kanter, MD, special advisor to the AAMC president and CEO and executive director of AAHCI. “I look forward to working with him and the steering committee on the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.”
The purpose of AAMC affinity groups is aligned with the association’s mission of leading and serving the academic medicine community to improve the health of people everywhere. Affinity groups provide networking and professional development opportunities for members and disseminate best practices on key issues impacting the academic medicine community.
The AAMC’s members comprise all 156 accredited U.S. medical schools; 14 accredited Canadian medical schools; approximately 400 teaching hospitals and health systems, including Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers; and nearly 80 academic societies. Through these institutions and organizations, the AAMC leads and serves America’s medical schools and teaching hospitals and the millions of individuals across academic medicine, including more than 191,000 full-time faculty members, 95,000 medical students, 149,000 resident physicians, and 60,000 graduate students and postdoctoral researchers in the biomedical sciences. Following a 2022 merger, the Alliance of Academic Health Centers and the Alliance of Academic Health Centers International broadened the AAMC’s U.S. membership and expanded its reach to international academic health centers.
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University of Utah Health is the state’s only academic health care system, providing leading-edge and compassionate care for a referral area that encompasses 10 percent of the US, including Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, western Colorado, and much of Nevada. A hub for health sciences research and education in the region, U of U Health has a $458 million research enterprise and trains the majority of Utah’s physicians, including more than 1,460 health care providers each year at its Colleges of Health, Nursing, and Pharmacy and Schools of Dentistry and Medicine. With more than 22,000 employees, the system includes 12 community clinics and five hospitals: University Hospital, Huntsman Mental Health Institute, Huntsman Cancer Hospital, University Orthopaedic Center, and the Craig H. Neilsen Rehabilitation Hospital. For 13 straight years, U of U Health has ranked among the top 10 U.S. academic medical centers in the rigorous Vizient Quality and Accountability Study.