Understanding, and closing, the rural health care gap
Article in their July 2017 E-Newsletter, courtesy of: National Rural Health Association (NRHA)
According to a CDC study, health care challenges including lack of preventive care, socioeconomic factors, and the shortage of primary care clinicians are affecting rural areas disproportionately. “We’ve spent so much time thinking about health care, but research has shown the majority of health is driven not by what happens in the doctor’s office, but by what happens in the rest of our lives,” says NRHA member Carrie Henning-Smith, PhD, with the University of Minnesota Rural Health Research Center. NRHA Clinical Services Constituency Group chair Roger D. Wells also points out that telemedicine can only do so much when many rural Americans still lack internet access.