North Carolinians are facing countless changes that require new ways of thinking about health care, partnering and investing resources, including:

• inequities in health care outcomes;
• a lack of affordable and accessible care;
• a rapidly aging population;
• shifting payment models and a consolidating health care system;
• increased focus on social determinants of health, such as housing and poverty; and
• an opioid epidemic and the coronavirus pandemic.

These intractable problems require collaboration across communities, regions, disciplines and industries.

UNC Health Sciences at MAHEC leverages the academic and research strength of UNC-Chapel Hill alongside the decades of community-based partnerships the Mountain Area Health Education Center has developed in the 16-plus counties of Western North Carolina. Together, as UNC Health Sciences at MAHEC, UNC-Chapel Hill and MAHEC have joined forces to help meet the unprecedented health-related challenges of this largely rural region of our state.

Serving Western North Carolinians

UNC Health Sciences at MAHEC is doing important work in expanding access to maternity care; substance use treatment; youth health careers education; interprofessional education and team-based care; healthy aging and home-based primary care; health equity and community capacity building; and more. We are working to develop models of teaching, research and community engagement that can inform the rest of the state and beyond as we all grapple with how to efficiently and equitably improve the health and well-being of our communities.