NEOAHEC Celebrates 25 Years
2016 has been a milestone and a year of celebration for Northeast Oregon AHEC, as it marks our organization’s 25th anniversary. It has been an honor and a privilege to celebrate with other community partners, to reflect on the impact we’ve made over the years, and to begin to adapt and re-envision NEOAHEC’s direction to ensure our continued success in coming decades. To commemorate this exciting time, we have created a VIDEO to help tell our story. Please enjoy and share!
Oregon AHEC's history began with the grassroots efforts of two physicians from Enterprise: Dr. Lowell Euhus and Dr. Scott Siebe. They met with State Senator Mike Thorne in 1988 to request help with the "crisis in rural healthcare." They hosted a symposium in Joseph, Oregon, with rural physicians, legislators, representatives from Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU), educators, and others interested in rural healthcare across the state. Once state funding was secured for AHECs, Dr. Dutch Reinschmidt began working with others to secure federal funding. In 1990 funding was secured, and Oregon AHEC quickly began forming its first regional center to be located in La Grande. NEOAHEC had its first meeting as an incorporated board in April 1991.
Since then, we’ve been actively involved in rural clinical experiences for learners from OHSU, Pacific University, Idaho State University, and Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences. We continue to have a strong presence throughout our eleven-county region with early pipeline programs. Some of these programs include our week-long residential health career exploration camp, MedQuest, and our signature Girls in Science and Saturday Science day camps that are delivered through our strong partnership with Eastern Oregon University.
NEOAHEC is committed to growing our own medical professionals! We are looking forward with anticipation as Area Health Education Centers nationwide begin to adapt to the new priorities the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) and the National AHEC Organization have collaborated to design. These priority areas, as they are predicted to be, are diversity and distribution of health care professionals and practice transformation.
For more information or to get involved with NEOAHEC, please contact us through email at neoahec@eou.edu
We can’t wait to hear from you!