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Rural Health
Resources by Topic: Specialty care

Who is Performing Routine Screening Endoscopy in Kansas Rural Communities
Examines the types of healthcare practitioners who perform endoscopic screening procedures in rural communities in Kansas. Utilizes survey data from 542 practicing physicians and provides information on their demographics, medical specialty, confidence in performing endoscopic procedures, and more.
Author(s): Todd T. Savolt, Jared Reyes, Siman Antar, Kyle Vincent
Citation: American Journal of Surgery, 250, 116511
Date: 12/2025
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A New Rural Blueprint: Strategic Partnerships That Keep Care Local
Discusses the Wisconsin High Value Network (WHVN), a clinically integrated network (CIN) focused on value-based care arrangements, data sharing, and quality improvement initiatives. Describes WHVN's strategic partnerships, governance, specialty care network, and more.
Date: 11/2025
Sponsoring organization: American Hospital Association
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Local Availability of Neonatal Intensive Care at Rural Hospitals with Childbirth Services
Discusses hospital and county characteristics for 89 rural hospitals offering childbirth services in 2021 based on proximity to neonatal intensive care units (NICU). Includes comparisons of characteristics for those hospitals more than and less than 30 miles from a NICU.
Author(s): Emily C. Sheffield, Clara E. Busse, Julia D. Interrante, Sara C. Handley, Katy Backes Kozhimannil
Citation: Journal of Perinatology, 2025
Date: 11/2025
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Pilot Study Examining the Effect of Rurality on Engagement and Abstinence for Adult Users of a Text-Message Cessation Intervention
Examines engagement, satisfaction, and outcomes of an Mobile health (mHealth) smoking cessation program in rural and nonrural populations. Utilizes feedback from participants enrolled in a 7-week mHealth smoking cessation program based in Virginia and their perceptions on program usefulness, helpfulness toward quitting, and overall satisfaction.
Author(s): James W. Kinchen, Melissa A. Little, Lee M. Ritterband, Kara P. Wiseman
Citation: BMC Public Health, 25, 4061
Date: 11/2025
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Differences in Rural and Urban Patient Perceptions of Facilitative Factors for Cancer Clinical Trial Participation
Examines factors associated with cancer clinical trial participation among 15 rural and 15 urban cancer patients in Vermont. Presents data and interview excerpts illustrating rural and urban patients' relative prioritization of factors including care coordination, travel time, financial support from hospitals, treatment regimen, and more.
Author(s): Maria C. Lent, Janine Cerutti, Maija Reblin, Randall F. Holcombe
Citation: BMC Health Services Research, 25, 1489
Date: 11/2025
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A Lifeline for Rural Communities: Sutter Health's Bold Behavioral Health Access Expansion
A conversation with Dan Peterson of Sutter Health's Behavioral Health Services and Matthew White of the Behavioral Health Service Line that focuses on behavioral health access in rural areas of northern California. Discusses utilization of crisis stabilization units, clinic investments, and virtual psychiatry.
Author(s): Tom Haederle, Rebecca Chickey, Dan Peterson, Matthew White
Date: 11/2025
Sponsoring organization: American Hospital Association
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Associations of Social Deprivation and Oncology Physician Network Vulnerability With Acute Care Utilization in the SEER-Medicare Population
Discusses the socioeconomic factors that correlate with acute care utilization among cancer patients, as well as the effect of regional specialist scarcity. Draws from Medicare data on patients with breast, lung, or colorectal cancer who have visited emergency departments or had non-elective hospitalizations and explores correlating social and regional factors, such as sex, rurality, social deprivation index score, and proximity to an oncology physician, among others.
Author(s): Ashlee A. Korsberg, Gabriel A. Brooks, A. James O'Malley, et al.
Citation: Health Services Research, e70070
Date: 11/2025
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Inpatient Utilization of Therapeutic Plasma Exchange in the United States: 2016-2021
Examines demographic and clinical variables associated with utilization of therapeutic plasma exchange (TPE) in the U.S. from 2016 to 2021. Utilizes national inpatient sample (NIS) data to analyze TPE utilization according to patient demographics, insurance type, discharge outcomes, clinical conditions, and hospital type, costs, region, bed size, and rurality.
Author(s): Jianling Tao, Sijie Zheng, Lusilda Agolli, et al.
Citation: Kidney Medicine, 7(11), 101105
Date: 11/2025
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Rural Perspectives on Digital Health in Cardiovascular Care: Qualitative Study of Interviews With Rural and Rural-Serving Primary Care Providers and Cardiologists
Explores the perspectives of 17 rural and rural-serving healthcare providers in Alaska, Idaho, and Washington, on the use of digital health to deliver rural cardiovascular care. Discusses five factors that influence adoption outlined by the Diffusion of Innovations (DOI) theory: relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability, and observability. Identifies themes that emerged from semi-structured interviews with these providers, including advantages and disadvantages of using digital health in their practice.
Author(s): Signe Burchim, Susan Miller, Kristin Beima-Sofie, et al.
Citation: Journal of Medical Internet Research, 27, e77234
Date: 11/2025
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Disparities in Geographic Access to Cardiac Rehabilitation among Socially Vulnerable Communities
Examines geographic and social disparities regarding access to cardiac rehabilitation (CR) care. Analyzes the relationship between CR access and social vulnerability, focusing on county CR availability, population size, distance to CR services, percentage without health insurance, and more. Includes metro versus rural county comparisons and discusses the role of rurality in CR access.
Author(s): Edward W. Chen, Wen‐Chih Wu, Ling Han, et al.
Citation: Journal of the American Heart Association,14, 20
Date: 10/2025
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