The National Area Health Education Center Organization - (NAO) is the national organization that supports and advances the Area Health Education Center (AHEC) network in improving the health of individuals and communities by transforming health care through education.

The AHEC (Area Health Education Centers) program was developed by Congress in 1971 to recruit, train and retain a health professions workforce committed to underserved populations. The HETC (Health Education Training Centers) program was created in 1989 to provide programs for specific populations with persistent, severe unmet health needs. Together the AHEC and HETC programs help bring the resources of academic medicine to bear in addressing local community health needs. By their very structure, AHECs and HETCs are able to respond in a flexible and creative manner in adapting national health initiatives to the particular needs of the nation’s most vulnerable communities.

Today, 50 AHEC programs with more than 200 centers and a dozen HETCs operate in almost every state and the District of Columbia. Approximately 120 medical schools and 600 nursing and allied health schools work collaboratively with AHECs and HETCs to improve health for underserved and under-represented populations.   More detail...