Linking Rural Health Services Research with Health Policy. Abstract, ExecutiveSummary and Final Report of Conference

摘要

In June of 2000, a small conference of rural health services researchers, healthpolicymakers, and journalists was convened to consider how to make better use of ongoing rural research findings of the formulation of public policy. As the result of federal grant funding since 1987, a new rural capability has been developed in the field of health services research. However, conference organizers believe that this capacity has not been fully appreciated or utilized by the nation's health policymaker. Financed by grants from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the Office of Rural Health Policy, Health Resources and Services Administration, the conference was held June 15th and 16th, 2000 in Washington, D.C., and resulted in a 16-page report and recommendations, linking rural health services with health policy, that has been disseminated throughout several academic and national policy communities. The conference and subsequent report have focused specifically on what the rural research community of scholars and institutions could do to make its growing body of knowledge about Rural Health Services and more useful to public policymakers and to better communicate their findings to the policy areas and the public through the news media.