Touching Lives Touching Lives - North Dakota Medicine

Bullseye:
UND’s Center for Rural Health scoresBIG
8 NORTH DAKOTA MEDICINE Holiday 2008
IT’S SOMETIMES DIFFICULT TO
quantify the impact and importance of
health in rural America. Sure, one
could use traditional percentages,
calculations and data, but the true
measure of impact often lies in people’s
stories. It is the elderly woman who is
able to have dialysis treatments in her
rural hometown, avoiding costly and
difficult travel to the city. It is the
reflective fifth-grader who wants to be a
doctor when he grows up because he
was inspired by a science event
sponsored by medical students.
Driven by the stories of the people it
serves, a small North Dakota organization
on the fourth floor of a nondescript
university building ended up becoming
a major piston in the engine which
impacts 25 percent of people in the
United States: rural health care.
The Center for Rural Health, at the
University of North Dakota (UND) School
of Medicine and Health Sciences, with
its straightforward focus on improving
health for people in rural communities,
“has challenged the country to pay
attention,” said H. David Wilson, MD,
dean of the UND medical school.
“Their efforts to ensure that people in
rural areas have access to quality and
affordable health care are shining a
spotlight on the state in a major way.”