From the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine:

This document represents AACOM’s Public Policy Agenda for the 116th Congress. It reflects the association’s federal advocacy priorities to ensure that osteopathic medical education (OME) is an active force in the formulation of national health and higher education policies. AACOM will aggressively pursue these goals, notwithstanding the challenging political and fiscal environment, as osteopathic medical schools continue to grow in number, size, and importance to the U.S. health care and medical education systems.

Public Policy Agenda Objectives:

• Graduate Medical Education
• Physician Workforce
• Medical Students and Federal Student Financial Aid
• Research
• Osteopathic Representation

For more detailed information, please click HERE.

FROM THE RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH:

With Virginia’s Medicaid program poised to expand coverage for hundreds of thousands of people, the state is considering a proposal to increase reimbursement rates for doctors to encourage them to provide care to more patients under the program.

To read more, please click HERE.

2018 Virginia Rural Collaborators Conference
Hosted by the Virginia Rural Health Association
November 14 & 15
Virginia Horse Center
Lexington, VA

For over twenty years, the Virginia Rural Health Association has served as “The Voice for Rural Health in Virginia.”  Rural Health is DIFFERENT.  Rural Americans face a unique combination of factors that create disparities in health care not found in urban areas. Economic factors, cultural and social differences, educational differences, lack of recognition by legislators and the isolation of living in remote rural areas all conspire to impede rural Americans in their struggle to lead a normal, healthy life.

The Virginia Rural Collaborators conference is an occasion to recognize that health in rural areas is not the sole responsibility of doctors and nurses.  Education, economic development, transportation, the built environment, and even social opportunities play a role in the health of individuals and communities.  All aspects of the community are providers or barriers to health.

For more information and to register, please click HERE.

Below are resources from the many excellent talks from Head for the Hills 2018.

• Physician Well-Being (and Burnout Prevention), Dael Waxman, M.D.
  •  Physician Well-Being (and Burnout Prevention) (Powerpoint)
• Mindfulness for Physician Wellness, Leah S. Cobb Snodgrass, MD
  • Mindfulness for Physician Wellness (Powerpoint)
  • STOP One Minute Breathing Space (Handout)
  • Ten Facts About Physician Suicide (Handout)
  • Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Research Base (Video)
  • Everyday Mindfulness Activities (Video)
  • Headspace Letting Go of Effort (Video)
• Insomnia: Tips for a better night’s sleep, Lauren Burns, DO, PGY3
  • Insomnia: Tips for a better night’s sleep (Powerpoint)
• Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment, Lyn O’Connell, Ph.D., IMFT
  • Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (Powerpoint)

The Rural Health Voice is the podcast of the Virginia Rural Health Association.  It discusses rural health issues at the grassroots level and how state and federal policies play out in our local communities

The Rural Health Voice is sponsored by the Virginia State Office of Rural Health and underwritten by the National Rural Health Association.

To check out The Rural Health Voice podcast, please click HERE.

A recent article from Bridge Magazine discussed a new program in Michigan that pays college graduates $10,000 to come back to rural communities. Could this be the answer the SWVA’s brain drain? Click HERE to read the full article.

The New York University School of Medicine made headlines earlier this month when it announced that it would offer free tuition to all current and future students. The University says its hope is for students to have the freedom to choose lower-paying specialities, such as those in primary care and family medicine, while lessening the financial burden that accompanies a medical education. The announcement was widely praised by many, but will this actually result in more medical students choosing primary care, and where will these primary care doctors practice? Josh Freeman, author of Medicine and Social Justice, explores this topic in a recent blog post (to read the full article, please click HERE). One line from this post seems especially relevant to Southwest Virginia:

“Thus, students from upper-middle and upper income, primarily white (and Asian) suburbs are most likely to practice in those settings – which are precisely those least in need of more doctors. Students from rural or low-income or minority communities are much more likely to practice in such communities, and these are the places most in need of more doctors.”

According to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, far Southwest Virginia is currently experiencing a shortage of primary care doctors. Free tuition at elite medical schools like NYU may spur more students to choose primary care, but it remains to be seen if this will have an impact on access to primary care doctors in rural and medically underserved areas, such as far Southwest Virginia.