What is Allied Health?

The two words "Allied Health" stand for the largest group of health care providers in the United States. Collectively, allied health professionals are over 3 million people strong and comprise more than 60 percent of the entire health care workforce. For our state of Texas, there are over 270,000 allied health professionals. In Texas for 2000-01, there were 12,841 allied health students enrolled and 6,913 graduates from 363 different programs representing 42 different professions.

Allied health professionals are those individuals involved in the identification, evaluation, treatment and prevention of diseases, injuries and conditions, while educating the public on prevention, wellness and self-management for healthy lifestyles. According to the American Medical Association (http://www.ama-assn.org), there are 52 verifiable disciplines in allied health.