Texas A&M’s Southwest Rural Health Research Center Secures $2.8 Million Grant to Enhance Rural Health in America

The Southwest Rural Health Research Center at the Texas A&M University School of Public Health has been awarded a four-year, $2.8 million cooperative agreement by the Health Resources and Services Administration’s Federal Office of Rural Health Policy. The funding will support research that will be used to guide national health policies impacting rural America.

Established in 2000 as one of six rural health research centers in the nation, the center leverages faculty and practice-based expertise within the Texas A&M University System and its partners to examine the needs of rural populations across the United States.

This cooperative agreement will allow the center to continue its crucial interdisciplinary research on the needs of rural and underserved populations by bringing together faculty expertise in health policy, chronic disease, health economics, health law, nursing and epidemiology. The award supports approximately four projects per year, which are selected to inform the nation’s policy agenda and reforms as they relate to rural populations.

The agreement will also allow the center to continue its rich tradition of training students to become well-rounded future contributors to improvements in rural population health. The center’s graduate students are routinely involved in research question development, data analysis, interpretation of results and dissemination of research findings.

The center is led by Alva O. Ferdinand, who also serves as head of the Department of Health Policy and Management at the School of Public Health. Ferdinand was recently named to the National Advisory Committee on Rural Health and Human Services by U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra.

“We are delighted that HRSA has entrusted us with an opportunity to continue our work on timely and nationally relevant rural health-related research. We look forward to working collaboratively with HRSA, our expert work group, our faculty researchers and student trainees to provide research findings that are useful for reforming and creating health policies that are supportive of rural populations,” Ferdinand said.

The center has a long history of generating research findings that prompt policy innovation and reforms. For example, the center’s recent work on disparate travel burdens to access health care has been used by the U.S. House of Representatives’ Ways and Means Committee in its request for input on solutions to improve access to care for rural Americans.

Earlier this year, the center released Rural Healthy People 2030, a companion to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Healthy People 2030. Published once each decade, this resource identifies the priorities from Healthy People that are most relevant for rural America. This third edition offers vital information for health policy planners and equips rural leaders and healthcare providers with the tools they need to serve their communities effectively. The publication is available for free download at srhrc.tamu.edu.

“As a center housed within a vast land-grant university, we count it a privilege to serve the nation’s rural residents by conducting research that tangibly improves the circumstances under which they live, play and work,” Ferdinand said.