Celebrating 2012 Allied Health Professionals Week
November 6th, 2012 1 Min readNovember 4-10 is National Allied Health Professions Week (or Allied Health Week in some lists). But what exactly is an allied health professional? At CompHealth, we use "allied health" as a term to encompass all of our non-physician staffing divisions. For us, It's an organizational concept that includes our therapy, advanced practice, laboratory, pharmacy, and healthcare management staffing or placement divisions. However, not all organizations define it in this manner.
The University of Oklahoma College of Allied Health defines allied professionals as "licensed caregivers" including professions like "occupational therapists, physical therapists, radiographers, radiation therapists, and speech language pathologists." They go on to explain how they work "in hospitals, offices, schools, and physician's clinics that provide services that pertain to general health and the identification, evaluation, treatment, and prevention of diseases and disorders."
Meanwhile, The University of Kansas School of Health Professions lists many programs, including "Cytotechnology, Dietetics and Nutrition, Health Information Mgmt, Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, and Speech-Language Pathology", among others.
You can see the similarities, but also some variation based on the school's program offerings. Even going straight to the source, The Association of Schools of Allied Health Professions (ASAHP) shows some broad interpretation in their definition of this group of providers.
The underlying message throughout, though, is that allied health workers are vital to sustaining the well-being of all of us. After intensive training in their field, they work in highly technical, skilled specialties to evaluate, treat, and prevent a variety of diseases and disorders.
From all of us at CompHealth, thank you for all you do!