Rural Health Information Hub Latest News

Community Paramedicine Impact Reference Guide

For those intending to research, plan, implement, evaluate, or otherwise consider community paramedicine (CP) systems, this guide from the National Rural Health Resource Center includes a compilation of cited references that describe the impact of previously implemented CP initiatives. Read more here.

Medicare COVID-19 Data Release

On Monday, June 22, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released preliminary data on COVID-19 derived from Medicare claims. Between January 1 and May 16, 2020, over 325,000 Medicare beneficiaries were diagnosed with COVID-19, and nearly 110,000 of those were hospitalized. The snapshot breaks down COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations for Medicare beneficiaries by state; race/ethnicity; dual eligibility for Medicare and Medicaid; age; gender; and urban/rural areas. Read more here.

Supply and Distribution of the Primary Care Workforce in Rural America: 2019

Researchers at the WWAMI Rural Health Research Center studied county-level data to calculate provider-to-population ratios of primary care physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants and then compared those ratios between metropolitan, micropolitan, and non-core counties.  Nationally, the provider-to-population ratio of family physicians is slightly higher in rural than urban areas, but the overall per capita supply of primary care providers remains substantially lower in rural areas than urban areas. Read more here.

NIH National COVID Cohort Collaborative

As part of an effort to help scientists understand COVID and develop treatments, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has launched a centralized, secure enclave to store and study clinical record data from people who have been diagnosed.  The collaborative aims to transform clinical information into knowledge urgently needed to study COVID-19, including health risk factors that indicate better or worse outcomes of the disease, and identify potentially effective treatments. Read more here.