Academic Medical Center (AMC)

What is an academic medical center?

Academic medical centers (AMCs) are hospitals that provide patient care and also educate healthcare providers in partnership with at least one medical school accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) or the American Osteopathic Association (AOA). Many AMCs are university medical centers. In addition to patient care services, they also conduct academic, medical and human subject research. 

How are Academic Medical Centers different from teaching hospitals?

Most AMCs are also teaching hospitals but not all teaching hospitals are AMCs. AMCs are affiliated with a medical school and confer medical degrees. Teaching hospitals have medical students, residents and other healthcare professionals there who are finishing or continuing medical education. The teaching hospitals are usually associated with a medical school. However, teaching hospitals do not issue medical degrees. 

As of January 2022, there are just over 200 hospitals in HospitalView designated as AMCs and over 1,300 designated as teaching hospitals: about 180 hospitals are both an AMC and a teaching hospital. 

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