Feature Channels: Rural Issues

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A Rutgers study presents a model for creating a sustainable neurosurgery programs in poor, remote locations

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Today, the majority of the world’s 40 million amputees live without access to a prosthesis. Albert Lin, a materials scientist and researcher with the Qualcomm Institute (QI) at UC San Diego, has created a project to change that.

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In Mozambique, most people with epilepsy don’t seek treatment. So the country took on an intimidating challenge: Diagnose and treat more people by increasing awareness, reducing stigma, improving medication access, and partnering with traditional healers.

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Four Vermont schools have joined CFES Brilliant Pathways’ growing network of programs across the US and Ireland in support of students becoming college and career ready. The addition of the Vermont schools supports a statewide initiative known as Advance Vermont launched in 2017 by Gov. Phil Scott focused on 70 percent of working-age residents attaining a postsecondary degree or credential of value.

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Cumulative environmental exposures affect rural and urban populations differently when it comes to diabetes risk. Multiple environmental factors were associated with a greater risk for diabetes in rural and sparsely populated counties compared with their urban counterparts.

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Cancer-control researchers at the University of Kentucky Markey Cancer Center and The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC – James) aim to increase colorectal cancer screening and follow-up care among underserved individuals in Appalachia through a $5.7 million grant from the National Cancer Institute.

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Despite the dire need for primary health care providers in California’s Central Valley, workplace discrimination and harassment can cause some of them to change practices or leave the region entirely.

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In recent weeks, presidential candidates pledged billions of dollars to bring broadband and internet access to rural America. That’s a good start, but the issue that the candidates need to address goes far beyond technology. It’s troubling that no candidate has begun to identify a strategy to concentrate on a more sweeping problem: More and more young people in our nation’s rural communities look at their hometowns and realize those places simply can’t support their dreams.

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The University of Illinois at Chicago received $1.7 million in research funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to study lead and other household health hazards. The funds will support two different projects in Illinois communities.

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A West Virginia University School of Medicine researcher is developing an app to train key personnel in rural areas how to identify and report one of the lesser known elements of the opioid epidemic — child sex trafficking.

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Middle Tennessee State University and Meharry Medical College solidified a unique academic partnership Thursday to address the state’s shortage of rural doctors by formally recognizing the inaugural class of students who have embarked on an accelerated path to become primary care physicians.

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Scientists from the UCLA Integrated Substance Abuse Programs will lead a $25 million National Institutes of Health study testing treatments, including the use of telemedicine, to help fight the opioid epidemic in rural America.

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The University of Kansas Cancer Center and Midwest Cancer Alliance have been awarded a grant to expand the reach of cancer clinical trials to Kansas’ rural communities.

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Suicide is becoming more common in America, an increase most pronounced in rural areas, new research has found. The study also highlights a cluster of factors, including lack of insurance and the prevalence of gun shops, that are associated with high suicide rates.

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In a decade, Medicare recipients saw a sevenfold increase in out of pocket costs for multiple sclerosis drugs. Spending on these drugs by Medicare itself increased by tenfold.

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While some of the data rural public health officials need to better serve their communities and guide public health policy and spending exists, that data is hard to access and use. University of Washington researchers conducted qualitative surveys of rural public health leaders in four Northwest states to find the barriers they face to getting and using data. The results of their research have been published in JAMIA and the researchers are establishing an accessible database with the tools rural officials need to understand and share\ the data.

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To protect China’s endangered cultural heritage, San Francisco-based Global Heritage Fund (GHF) and American Express (AMEX) have partnered to support cultural heritage and historic preservation. This groundbreaking partnership helps communities adapt traditional practices to contemporary needs.

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Mildred Warner, professor of city and regional planning in the College of Architecture, Art and Planning, has secured a $500,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to extend her work on multigenerational planning in rural areas.

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Worldwide, more than 50 million people are living with epilepsy. As many as 37 million are not receiving treatment, though it can cost as little as US$5 a year and eliminates seizures about two-thirds of the time. These findings and many others are published in "Epilepsy: A public health imperative", a report produced by ILAE, the World Health Organization and the International Bureau for Epilepsy.

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The University of Maryland School of Medicine is awarded a $750,000 grant to establish a rural residency program to help ensure that there is a pipeline of general practitioners in rural Maryland Eastern Shore counties.

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Northern Arizona University chemist Gerrick Lindberg is studying whether changing the chemical makeup of the solution in which insulin, and eventually other drugs, is stored can give it a longer shelf life, thus increasing access to diabetes who have a difficult time accessing regular health care resources.

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Finding a new doctor for health checkups and general care can pose a challenge to anyone. But for people who take prescription opioid pills for their chronic pain, it might be far harder, according to a new study.

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Canada’s largest-ever concussion study, led by researchers at Toronto Rehab, has uncovered rates that are nearly double what has previously been recorded, showcasing the need for increased education about concussion and access to more specialized, best-in-practice concussion care.

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A new program seeks to improve community oncology providers’ knowledge of genetic testing in breast cancer patients, as well as provide tools to allow genetic counseling and testing to be incorporated in their clinical practice.

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To address the shortage of health-care professionals in rural and underserved areas, nurse-researchers are helping rural clinics more fully utilize registered nurses in primary care and have expanded the South Dakota State University nursing curriculum to better prepare students to do just that.

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The study will allow researchers to learn what causes the high burden of heart, lung, blood and sleep disorders in Alabama, Kentucky, Louisiana and Mississippi.

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A new study led by a University of Georgia researcher, in collaboration with epidemiologists from the Georgia Department of Public Health, has identified some common factors associated with farmer suicide that may help health providers develop strategies to reduce suicide risk.

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Rumi Chunara, assistant professor of computer science and engineering and global public health at New York University, has won a Grand Challenges Explorations grant—an initiative funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Chunara will pursue an innovative global health and development research project focused on smart immunization targeting in Pakistan using artificial intelligence (AI) and mobile tools.

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A new study found that rural emergency department visits grew by 50 percent during a 12-year timeframe, suggesting that rural emergency departments serve as safety nets for many patients.

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A team-based model to diabetes care could be essential to helping patients in rural communities lower their blood sugar levels, according to a new study from a team of researchers at West Virginia University. Combining diabetes educators, case managers, pharmacists, nurses, family medicine residents, psychologists and board-certified family medicine attending physicians in the approach to care resulted in better outcomes for patients. Patients who participated in the program saw significant reductions in their HbA1c — or blood sugar— levels.

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A new study finds wide state-by-state variations in Medicaid reimbursements to physicians who treat cancer patients with radiation therapies. These differences could compound existing disparities in access to health care in rural communities, which tend to have higher Medicaid coverage rates than metropolitan areas.

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Nursing researchers have developed a novel tool called the “Basic Knowledge of Alzheimer’s Disease,” to measure and assess Alzheimer’s knowledge in rural and underserved communities, in a way that matches their socioeconomic, educational and cultural needs. They put the survey to a test at senior centers in the Florida Glades and Appalachian Virginia, West Virginia, Alabama and North Carolina.

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The newest study of America’s radiation oncology workforce finds that gender and race gaps have narrowed slightly, although persistent and growing geographic disparities point to a need for more equity in access to radiation therapy care. Results of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) 2017 Radiation Oncologist Workforce Study are published in the March issue of the International Journal of Radiation Oncology • Biology • Physics (Red Journal), and an infographic summarizing the results is also available.

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Children born into poverty show key differences in early brain function - according to new research from the University of East Anglia.

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Researchers will answer that question today at the Society of Behavioral Medicine’s 40th Annual Meeting & Scientific Sessions. People living in rural areas are more likely to have ambiguous beliefs and fears about getting cancer, as well as more fatalistic viewpoints than urban dwellers, reports a research team from Mayo Clinic.

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A new, first-of-its kind project from researchers at The University of Kansas Cancer Center aims to boost participation in urologic cancer clinical trials by partnering with community urologists.

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Training community health workers to perform verbal autopsy interviews captured more accurate data about the number and causes of deaths in rural Uganda than current health facility surveillance methods, researchers at UNC-Chapel Hill and in-country partners found. PLOS ONE published the results.

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The National Center for Rural Education Research Networks (NCRERN), announced Feb. 6, will establish and support a network of 60 school districts in New York and Ohio, as scholars work to address challenges facing rural schools. John W. Sipple, associate professor in the Department of Development Sociology at Cornell University, joins scholars from Harvard and Dartmouth, plus state government officials in New York and Ohio, in NCRERN.

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Morgan Vigil-Hayes, an assistant professor of computer science at Northern Arizona University, aims to bring more reliable Internet access to tribal communities and other underserved areas by designing and implementing community-centric networked systems that can operate in resource-limited environments.

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Nearly 35 percent of rural counties in the United States are experiencing protracted and significant population loss, according to new research released by the Carsey School of Public Policy at the University of New Hampshire. Those counties are now home to 6.2 million residents, a third fewer than lived there in 1950.

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Babies born after being exposed to opioids before birth are more likely to be delivered in regions of the U.S. with high rates of long-term unemployment and lower levels of mental health services, according to a study from researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and the RAND Corporation.

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A study published today in the American Journal of Public Health estimates that 1,857 people injected drugs in the last six months in Cabell County, W.Va., a rural county with a population of 94,958. This estimate is based on an innovative survey technique that public health officials can now use in their own rural communities to address the opioid epidemic.

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New research from West Virginia University suggests a widely used index to assess hospital patients’ risk of readmission may have a blind spot. Physicians and nurses use a tool called the “LACE index” to identify which patients are most likely to be readmitted to the hospital because symptoms come back or complications arise. But research out of the Health Sciences Center suggests the index fails to consider a key variables that could improve predictions in West Virginia: whether patients are on Medicaid.

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Researchers at McMaster University have identified trends linking health and lifestyle factors like access to public transit, the variety of fresh fruits and vegetables in grocery stores, the prices of popular foods, the availability and prices of cigarettes and alcohol, and the promotion, or lack thereof, of healthy foods in restaurants. The study findings are based on detailed data collected across Canada’s 10 provinces.

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Doctors in North Carolina created a state-wide network and used existing electronic health records to determine that tens of thousands of people across the state were at high risk of developing cardiovascular disease. Primary care doctors used this analysis to engage patients to reduce their risk.

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When households in sub-Saharan Africa don’t have an adequate number of insecticide-treated bed nets, pregnant women and children under five are the most likely family members to sleep under the ones they have, leaving men and school-aged children more exposed to malaria, new Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs (CCP) research suggests.