About Us

Alaska Center for Rural Health, Alaska's AHEC – A little background

The Alaska Center for Rural Health (ACRH) exists to help strengthen systems to deliver comprehensive and culturally relevant health care to rural Alaska. It serves all aspects of Alaska's rural health system: Native and non-Native, physical and behavioral, within all disciplines as they struggle to address our state's health delivery challenges.

Alaska's Area Health Education Center (AHEC) is a statewide university-industry partnership focused on strengthening Alaska's health workforce housed within ACRH. Specifically, the AHEC works in three distinct areas:

  • Encouraging people from disadvantaged backgrounds into health careers
  • Coordinating clinical rotations, to encourage health profession students to secure and retain employment in underserved areas with underserved populations
  • Provision of continuing education/continuing medical education in underserved areas, towards the retention of those health care workers

The Alaska AHEC partners with health facilities and organizations to create regional AHEC offices, serving distinct geographic areas. The Alaska AHEC regional centers and host organizations are:

  • Yukon Kuskokwim AHEC hosted by Yukon Kuskokwim Health Corporation in Bethel
  • Interior Alaska AHEC hosted by Fairbanks Memorial Hospital in Fairbanks
  • South Central AHEC hosted by Providence Health & Services Alaska in Anchorage
  • Southeast Alaska AHEC hosted by SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium (SEARHC) in Sitka
  • Northwest AHEC hosted by Ilisagvik College in Barrow

Alaska CACHE Development – Collaboration within Alaska's Healthcare Industry

The Alaska CACHE is a major initiative of the ACRH/AHEC made possible through collaboration with several healthcare industry partners. These partners serve on the Alaska CACHE Development Subcommittee and contribute heavily to its design and functionality. They are: