Coming Together, Moving Apart: A History of the Term Allied Health in Education, Accreditation, and Practice

Journal of Allied Health, Spring 2008 by Donini-Lenhoff, Fred G

What Is Allied Health?

There are multiple definitions of allied health, in part because of its heterogeneous practice patterns and educational requirements. The simplest definition is "all health care professionals other than doctors and nurses." Some have attempted to define allied health even more broadly to include physicians and nurses: "In this view, all health care providers should be considered allied with the patient."6 Other definitions use the concepts of health professionals who are allied to physicians and the practice of medicine as well as allied to one another in an interdisciplinary, team-based approach to care.

A definition jointly developed by the National Network of Health Career Programs in Two Year Colleges (NN2), Health Professions Network (HPN), and Association of Schools of Allied Health Professions (ASAHP) uses education and certification/licensure to help refine the scope of allied health: "Allied health professionals are health care practitioners with formal education and clinical training who are credentialed through certification, registration, and/or licensure."7

Currently, the ASAHP website states that:

allied health professionals are involved with the delivery of health or related services pertaining to the identification, evaluation and prevention of diseases and disorders; dietary and nutrition services; rehabilitation and health systems management, among others. Allied health professionals, to name a few, include dental hygienists, diagnostic medical sonographers, dietitians, medical technologists, occupational therapists, physical therapists, radiographers, respiratory therapists, and speech language pathologists.8

The AMA, which publishes a directory of accredited allied health education programs in 71 professions, excludes from its definition of allied health what are often referred to as the MODVOPP professions-medicine (allopathic), osteopathic medicine, dentistry, veterinary medicine, optometry, podiatry, and pharmacy-as well as chiropractic, clinical psychology, any level of nursing education, and graduate degrees in public health or health administration. Allied health practitioners "participate in the delivery of health care, diagnostic and rehabilitation services, therapeutic treatments, or related services."9

The AMA's exclusion of the MODVOPP professions is modeled on the approach taken by the Bureau of Health Professions, Health Resources and Service Administration (HRSA), which, until funding cuts for fiscal year 2006, had awarded grants for increasing the allied health workforce. The bureau, however, also excludes physician assistants from its allied health definition, because the profession has a separate line item for federal funding. In a 2001 report, HRSA's Advisory Committee on Interdisciplinary, Community-Based Linkages noted the following:

The concept of what is identified as "allied health" remains vague and is often defined by naming certain disciplines either through congressional action or by administrative policy. This approach risks failing to meet the unique health workforce needs of a region or, perhaps, the entire country. The visibility and representation of "allied health" within the agency does not correlate with the number of health professions encompassed within that broadly understood discipline and the fact that it is the fastest growing group of health professionals.10