Thursday 16.03.2023
Media get in touch with: Sara Plummer | Communications Coordinator | 918-561-1282 | sara.plummer@okstate.edu
The OSU Center for Rural Overall health was awarded $three million as component of a bigger well being equity grant awarded to the Oklahoma Division of Overall health from the Centers for Illness Handle and Prevention.
The funds will be divided amongst 3 important locations to enhance and expand well being care in rural and underserved communities in Oklahoma. Around $1.four million will fund scholarships for OSU Center for Overall health Sciences students in rural and tribal medicine tracks and doctor assistant students.
About $400,000 will be employed to buy and deploy two cargo vans for telemedicine and mobile well being efforts in rural Oklahoma. The remaining funds will go to neighborhood-primarily based applications and partnerships with OSU Extension for nutrition, water high quality and broadband initiatives.
“The mission of the OSU Center for Rural Overall health is to enhance the high quality of life for rural and underserved Oklahomans,” stated Denna Wheeler, executive director of the center. “At the center, we operate with government agencies, academic institutions and rural communities to address well being disparities by means of a variety of grant-funded applications, like help for rural hospitals, well being workforce improvement, telehealth technical help and study.”
“At the center, we operate with government agencies, academic institutions and rural communities to address well being disparities by means of a variety of grant-funded applications, like help for rural hospitals, well being workforce improvement, telehealth technical help and study.”
– Denna Wheeler, executive director of the OSU Center for Rural Overall health
Not too long ago completed Neighborhood Overall health Requirements Assessments highlighted gaps in fundamental public solutions, like access to clean drinking water and higher-speed broadband solutions, as properly as the want for further emergency care education in tiny rural and crucial access hospitals.
Funding will also assist address well being disparities amongst higher-danger and historically underserved populations in rural communities.
“The OSU Overall health Sciences Center is committed to enhancing access to high quality well being and public solutions for rural and underserved populations,” Wheeler stated. “We are excited to companion with OSU Extension and state agencies such as the Oklahoma Division of Overall health to implement neighborhood-focused well being equity initiatives.”
The Center for Rural Overall health was established in 2001 and is 1 of the OSU-CHS Centers of Excellence.