ETSU Health 2022 Annual Report

A Leader in Rural Health

East Tennessee State University continues to expand its long-standing presence as a leader in rural health research, earning millions of dollars in competitive grant awards and conducting research that impacts national, state, and Appalachian rural health issues.

The ETSU Center for Rural Health Research was created in 2019 with funding from the state of Tennessee and a generous gift from Ballad Health.

STATE AND REGIONAL INITIATIVES

In Tennessee, ETSU is supporting regional implementation and statewide evaluation for the Tennessee Department of Health’s (TDH) COVID-19 Health Disparities grant. As part of this work, the center has been able to distribute more than $2 million throughout East Tennessee to community-based organizations while assisting TDH in data collection to understand the impact of this initiative in Tennessee.

Continuing to establish its leadership in addressing the health challenges facing the people of Appalachia, ETSU and NORC recently completed their third Diseases of Despair report for the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC), analyzing the impact of diseases of despair (overdose, suicide, and alcoholic liver disease) on mortality within the Appalachian region.

NATIONAL IMPACT

The work of these centers has also provided resources and data used on a national scale.

In September 2022, ETSU, along with NORC at the University of Chicago and the Fletcher Group, Inc., released a mapping tool that enables users to measure the strength of substance use recovery ecosystems for every county in the United States and explore associations with overdose deaths and other sociodemographic and economic factors (rei.norc.org). The term “recovery ecosystem” is used to describe the factors in a community that support individuals in recovery from substance use disorder.

FUTURE OF RURAL HEALTH RESEARCH

ETSU leaders identify many possibilities as they look to the next year of rural health research. “Moving into the future, I see several broad interest areas where ETSU can leverage its expertise,” said Dr. Randy Wykoff, Dean of the ETSU College of Public Health. “One is rural aging, and the other is health care delivery analysis. These are two areas where there are tremendous challenges facing Appalachia and all rural areas in the United States.”

“In addition to the Center for Rural Health Research, we have several other centers working on rural health issues, including ETSU’s Addiction Science Center, CARE Women’s Health, and the Center for Cardiovascular Risk Research,” Wykoff said. “Working together and with other colleges and programs across the university, ETSU will continue to be a leader in rural health research for the foreseeable future.”

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