Rural Missouri faces several challenges meeting the health care needs of its people, including a declining economic base, large numbers of elderly and poor, rising health care costs and a shortage of health professionals.
As the state’s leading educator of physicians practicing in Missouri, the University of Missouri School of Medicine is in a key position to improve the supply and distribution of physicians in rural Missouri.
In 1994, Dean Lester R. Bryant requested the creation of the MU Area Health Education Center (MU AHEC) program office to enhance access to quality health care — particularly primary and preventative care — by growing and supporting Missouri’s health care workforce.
The Missouri Area Health Education Centers (MAHEC) began functioning on Oct. 1, 1998, at the Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine (KCOM). Starting from a regionally focused 27-county project directed by KCOM, the MAHEC has grown into a statewide system involving three cooperating medical schools and numerous other health professions schools and serving all 114 of Missouri’s counties.
To learn more about the Missouri Area Health Education Centers (MAHEC) network and regional centers, please visit the websites below.
