West Virginia Rural Health Research Center
General center funded by the Office of Rural Health Policy, Fiscal Year 2008-2012
West Virginia University
Institute for Health Policy Research
Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center
3110 MacCorkle Avenue, SE
Charleston, WV 25304-1299
Phone: 304.347.1348
Fax: 304. 293.6685
Web site: http://www.hsc.wvu.edu/wvhealthpolicy/
Director: Michael Hendryx, PhD
Deputy Director: Cynthia Persily, PhD
The West Virginia Rural Health Research Center (WVRHRC) is co-located on the Morgantown and Charleston campuses of West Virginia University,
providing access to the full complement of university departments and resources and to health policymakers at state and national levels. The
WVRHRC is based in the Institute for Health Policy Research and the Department of Community Medicine, and includes researchers in other university units including Geography, Nursing, Pharmacy, Physiology, Psychology, and the university’s Office of Rural Health, with plans for expansion to additional areas. The WVRHRC was established in 2008 in the most recent Office of Rural Health Policy funding cycle. Advisory boards to the WVRHRC include national experts on rural health
research and policy from throughout the country.
The WVRHRC conducts policy-relevant research on environmental health in rural populations and other rural health topics of national importance.
Initial environmental studies include a geographic assessment of human-caused environmental hazards in rural areas in relation to population health outcomes, and a study of environmental competence as an extension of cultural competence among rural health care providers. Other research will focus on social and economic risk and resiliency in
rural populations relative to health outcomes. Additional topic areas are anticipated as the center develops and expands.
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