Academic Health Sciences Centres
In 2009, King’s Health Partners was established. Our four founding partners came together, and we were accredited as an Academic Health Sciences Centre (AHSC) by the Department of Health, now the Department of Health and Social Care.
AHSCs are partnerships between universities and NHS organisations that combine excellence in research, education and patient care, accelerating innovation in these areas for the benefit of patients, communities, staff and students.
Our strength as an AHSC comes from our partners; a world-leading research university, two high profile acute trusts and a world-renowned mental health trust. We are differentiated through our breadth of research, portfolio of health education and training, key areas of outstanding clinical practice and pioneering work integrating mental and physical healthcare.
We were successfully accredited for a further five years in 2014 and again in 2020 (now accredited by NIHR/NHS E&I), recognising our continual success in delivering our mission. We are currently one of eight AHSCs in England.
The UK's other seven designated AHSCs are:
- Bristol Health Partners / Academic Health Science Centre
- Cambridge University Health Partners / Academic Health Science Centre
- Imperial College Academic Health Science Centre
- Manchester Academic Health Science Centre
- Newcastle Health Innovation Partners / Academic Health Science Centre
- Oxford Academic Health Partners / Academic Health Science Centre
- UCL Partners / Academic Health Science Centre.
Leading international examples of this integrated approach include:
- Johns Hopkins Medicine in the United States
- Karolinska Institutet in Sweden