Broad symposium on rural-health issues to be held at UK Aug. 26

Health-care practitioners and people interested in rural health policy are invited to attend a wide-ranging symposium on rural health issues Friday, Aug. 26, at the University of Kentucky.

UK’s Rural and Underserved Health Research Center is hosting the symposium, which will be held from 10 a.m. to noon ET in Room 411 of the Charles T. Wethington Building, near the UK hospital and adjacent to Kentucky Clinic. Admission is free; parking will be available in the connected hospital garage on Limestone Street.

Researchers affiliated with the center will discuss some of their recent findings, including screening in primary care for colorectal cancer, in which Kentucky ranks first in the nation; dispensing of naloxone, the drug that blocks drug overdoses in progress; prevalence and monitoring of diabetes, which is more common in Kentucky than most states; and “Addressing Social Determinants of Health in Family Medicine Practices,” from Dr. Lars E. Peterson, a UK professor and vice president of the American Board of Family Medicine.

Following the presentations, national and regional experts will have an open discussion of rural-health issues. The panelists will be Dr. Andrew Bazemore, ABFM senior vice president for research and policy; Veronica Judy Cecil, deputy commissioner of Kentucky’s Medicaid program; Mary Charlton, associate professor and director of the Iowa Cancer Registry at the University of Iowa; Dr. Gilbert Liu, medical director of The Ohio Colleges of Medicine Government Resource Center; Alan Morgan, CEO of the National Rural Health Association; and Tim Putnam, former president and CEO of Margaret Mary Health in Batesville, Ind.

Possible topics for the panel discussion include the impact of Inflation Reduction Act, the impact of flooding in Eastern Kentucky, possible changes in federal definitions of rural, metropolitan and micropolitan; and the future work of the federally funded center.