Scope: Rural Health Research Grant Program Cooperative Agreement

The Rural and Underserved Health Research Center (RUHRC) will conduct rural health services and policy research with a concentration on impoverished, underserved rural areas and populations as compared to other areas and populations of the U.S. Underserved rural areas and their populations, including the predominantly white Appalachia region, predominantly African American Mississippi Delta region, and heavily Hispanic areas of the Southwest, face substantial economic challenges that impact rural health care systems, access to care, and population health. Yet, relatively little research in the overall field of rural health research has focused on inequities of access and population health among highly underserved areas and populations. Proposed Services. The RUHRC will produce research findings that are national in scope by utilizing several existing nationally representative insurance claims and survey data sets. Our proposed research center will expand the evidence base of pressing rural population health and health care problems that our research team is uniquely qualified to investigate and include: 1. Rural substance use, its consequences, and treatment access; 2. Rural mental health and treatment access; 3. Family physicians’ roles in rural health care, including the social determinants of health and cancer services; and 4.Contemporary health policies and rural access. Specific aims are: Aim 1. To advance our understanding of effective means of organizing health services, facilitating access, and improving population health in rural America, especially in highly impoverished and underserved rural areas. Aim 2. To disseminate research findings and inform health policy makers, health system managers, and providers about how to better organize and deliver health services with the ultimate goal of reducing inequities in care and improving population health in rural communities. To accomplish these aims, we have assembled an accomplished team of researchers with expertise in general health services research (HSR), epidemiology, political science, health economics, pharmacy outcomes and policy, family medicine, and journalism. In summary, our Center for Rural Health Research will produce original health services findings to inform decisions about how to improve rural health services delivery and population health in rural America, especially rural areas with low median household incomes, high poverty and unemployment rates, and low educational levels.