The Academy of Communication in Healthcare improves the effectiveness of healthcare by focusing on education, research and practice in communication and partnerships among patients, families and healthcare teams. ACH accomplishes this through:
- Welcoming researchers, educators, clinicians, patients, patient advocates, and all members of the healthcare team.
- Providing opportunities for collaboration, support and personal and professional development.
- Identifying strengths, resources and needs of patients, their family members and healthcare professionals, both as unique individuals and in relationship to one another.
- Developing skills that integrate biological, psychological and social domains.
- Applying existing scholarship from multiple disciplines and developing new knowledge through research.
- Promoting collaborative relationships between clinicians and patients, teachers and learners, and all members of the health care team.
- Incorporating core values of respect, empathy and genuineness in human relationships and the importance of self-awareness in all activities. Vision:
A health care system where all patients, healthcare professionals, trainees and researchers feel valued, are treated equitably with respect, compassion, understanding, and are actively engaged in healthcare processes and decisions.
