April, 1999
Contact: Linda Jackson, Rural Health Projects
The University of Alabama, (205) 348-1302
Rural Scholar Programs Shared with RWJ Grantees from Ten States
Rural Health Scholars and Rural Medical Scholars from UA accompanied Dr. John Wheat, Director of the Rural Scholar programs, and representatives of partner agencies in Alabama's Southern Rural Access planning grant to a meeting in Atlanta in March. Participants from ten states receiving Robert Wood Johnson Foundation funds to improve health care in the rural South attended the meeting to share ideas and strategies. The RWJ Foundation has made available $13.8 million over three years for the first phase of an effort to improve access to care in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, East Texas, and West Virginia. A broad consortium of stakeholders in each state must cooperate under this program to improve the health care system.
Rural Medical Scholars from Dale County and Russell County who attended the meeting start medical school this summer after a year of focused study of rural health issues. The conference allowed them to meet rural doctors and other health providers from several states and learn about how they are meeting the needs of their patients. Other rural scholars attending the meeting were 1996 Rural Health Scholars--a nursing student from Sumter County, and a biology major from Monroe County-- and a pre-med graduate student from Macon County.
Dr. Wheat was one of the speakers at the conference and presented an overview of the rural scholar programs and their importance in the "Rural Health Pipeline," a concept which the RWJ Foundation has incorporated into their guidelines for improving rural health systems.
"He was the only other speaker besides the Governor of Georgia to have an entourage," said one of the students, "but more importantly, an entourage that represented the impact of his programs."