Viewpoint: developing integrated clinical programs: it's what academic health centers should do better than anyone. So why don't they?

Few would dispute that health care should be provided in seamless, well-integrated clinical care environments that bring together the various disciplines needed to provide patient-centered care, to educate trainees, and to conduct research into a particular disease or episode of care. Yet there are relatively few examples of successful or sustained clinical integration, either in the community setting or in academic health centers (AHCs). The authors draw on their experience with several AHCs and other health care settings to address why AHCs have not made better progress in developing integrated centers of clinical care.