About Rural Health Research Centers

The Rural Health Research Center (RHRC) Program is designed to help policy makers, both in Washington and throughout the Nation, better understand the problems that rural communities face in assuring access to health care for their residents. This is the only Federal program that is dedicated entirely to producing policy-relevant research on health care in rural areas. Initiated in 1988, it is administered by the Office of Rural Health Policy (ORHP), Health Resources and Services Administration.

The Centers study critical issues facing rural communities in their quest to secure adequate, affordable, high quality health services for their residents. The Centers' research findings inform a wide audience of National, State, and local decision-makers concerned with rural health. These research findings have been instrumental in bridging gaps between policy and program needs and have assisted in educating legislators and policymakers. Each year, specific research topics for the Centers are selected jointly by the Research Center Directors and the policy staff at ORHP. The emphasis is on research that will have a timely impact on policy debates and decisions at Federal and State levels.

Eight Centers have cooperative agreements with the Office for FY2005-2008 – five General Centers and three Analytic Centers. Both General and Analytic Centers concentrate on policy-focused health services research. The Analytic Centers also provide rapid-responses to emerging policy issues, generally using innovative research approaches and techniques.

For more information about the individual research centers funded under this program, please see http://www.ruralhealthresearch.org/centers.php.

About the Rural Health Research Gateway

The Rural Health Research Gateway web site provides easy and timely access to all of the research and findings of the ORHP-funded Rural Health Research Centers. The site can be used to find abstracts of both current and completed research projects, publications resulting from those projects, and information about the research centers themselves as well as individual researchers.

The Rural Health Research Gateway web site is part of a larger effort undertaken by the University of North Dakota Center for Rural Health, in conjunction with the RUPRI Health Panel with funding from HRSA's federal Office of Rural Health Policy. Its intent is to help move new research findings of the Rural Health Research Centers to various end users as quickly and efficiently as possible.

For more information about this project:

• National Audience Needs Study Report: Executive Summary
  This executive summary provides key findings from a study examining the information needs of a diverse national audience for rural health research products and determining effective approaches for disseminating research findings.
• Bridging Rural Health Research and Policy: Dissemination Strategies
  In this paper, the RUPRI Health Panel describes five strategies identified as critical to effective dissemination and expanded use of rural health services research. This paper also discusses the requisite infrastructure needed to enhance research dissemination.
• Rural Health Research Gateway: National Audience Impact Study Report
  Reports findings on the impact of the Rural Health Research Gateway web site and a flyer describing the work of the Rural Health Research Centers. The impact study examines the reaction of members of the diverse target audience, the usefulness of the new dissemination products to the audience, and the frequency of use for the products.
• Disseminating Research: A National Audience Toolkit for Rural Health Research Centers
  The toolkit is designed to facilitate dissemination and use of rural health services research. The toolkit is a resource for researchers to  enhance communication and dissemination efforts and includes approaches for both developing various research publications, and disseminating research results.

 

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