Background And Objectives: The widening gap between urban and rural health outcomes is exacerbated by physician shortages that disproportionately affect rural communities. Rural residencies are an effective mechanism to increase physician placement in rural and medically underserved areas yet are limited in number due to funding. Community health center/academic medicine partnerships (CHAMPs) can serve as a collaborative framework for expansion of academic primary care residencies outside of traditional funding models.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) is an evidence-based non-pharmacological approach for chronic low back pain (cLBP), yet it is not readily available or reimbursable within primary care clinics. Primary care providers (PCPs) who wish to avoid prescribing opioids and other medications typically have few options for their cLBP patients. We present the protocol of a pragmatic clinical trial entitled OPTIMUM (Optimizing Pain Treatment In Medical settings Using Mindfulness).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFederally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) have been essential in response to COVID-19 outbreaks among vulnerable populations. Our rural FQHC had a primary role in early detection of and response to a poultry plant-related outbreak at the outset of the pandemic that disproportionately and gravely affected the local Hispanic community. The health center activated a rapid local response that included the community's first mass testing event and first acute respiratory treatment clinic, both of which were central to abatement.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: Transformation of care teaching is often didactic and conceptual instead of practical and operational. Clinical environments, slow to transform, limit student exposure to key experiences that characterize transformed care. We describe the design and implementation of TEAM Clinic (Teach students, Empower patients, Act collaboratively, Meet health goals) - an early clinical learning experience to address this gap.
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