Health Equity and Access in Rural Regions (HEARR)

The Institute for Engagement and Negotiation at University of Virginia is working with a multi-stakeholder group to design and test a replicable multi-sector rural health convening process that will enable medical/healthcare providers and social, faith-based, and other nonmedical organizations to define and characterize a particular regional population for collaborative research and experimentation in population health. This process will do the following: Produce a rural health network map that makes visible (1) the geographic footprint of the social organizations that shape the local rural population, and (2) the potential connectedness of individual nonmedical and medical components of a rural health network that are now in place—but not connected; Use the rural population and network map to identify gaps and opportunities for community-led, cross-government jurisdiction healthy community demonstration projects that build trust and demonstrate the potential for multi-sector collaboration in rural population healthy behavior change;  Design and test high-priority interventions that can generate outcome and cost data essential for innovative sustainable business models.