The regional health education center: Illinois AHEC as an organizational prototype.

Illinois is one of 11 states to develop area health education center (AHEC) projects as recommended by the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education and funded by the federal government. The experience of the University of Illinois Medical Center with its project suggests the evolution of a regional health education center concept in which AHEC functions are undertaken within the context of regional schools of medicine. A conceptual model is presented here which relates to regionalized health professions education, with medical education as the locus for its development.