The University of Washington's Community-Oriented Public Health Practice program and Public Health-Seattle & King County partnership.

The Community-Oriented Public Health Practice (COPHP) program, a 2-year in-residence MPH degree program in the University of Washington School of Public Health, has partnered with Public Health-Seattle & King County (PHSKC) since 2002 to create a mutually beneficial set of programs to improve teaching and address community-based public health problems in a practice setting. The COPHP program uses a problem-based learning approach that puts students in small groups to work on public health problems. Both University of Washington-based and PHSKC-based faculty facilitate the classroom work. In the first year for students, COPHP, in concert with PHSKC, places students in practicum assignments at PHSKC; in the second year, students undertake a master's project (capstone) in a community or public health agency. The capstone project entails taking on a problem in a community-based agency to improve either the health of a population or the capacity of the agency to improve population health. Both the practicum and the capstone projects emphasize applying classroom learning in actual public health practice work for community-based organizations. This partnership brings PHSKC and COPHP together in every aspect of teaching. In essence, PHSKC acts as the "academic health department" for COPHP. There are detailed agreements and contracts that guide all aspects of the partnership. Both the practicum and capstone projects require written contracts. The arrangements for getting non-University of Washington faculty paid for teaching and advising also include formal contracts.

Applying WHO's 'workforce indicators of staffing need' (WISN) method to calculate the health worker requirements for India's maternal and child health service guarantees in Orissa State.

OBJECTIVE: In one district of Orissa state, we used the World Health Organization's Workforce Indicators of Staffing Need (WISN) method to calculate the number of health workers required to achieve the maternal and child health 'service guarantees' of India's National Rural Health Mission (NRHM). We measured the difference between this ideal number and current staffing levels. METHODS: We collected census data, routine health information data and government reports to calculate demand for maternal and child health services. By conducting 54 interviews with physicians and midwives, and six focus groups, we were able to calculate the time required to perform necessary health care tasks. We also interviewed 10 new mothers to cross-check these estimates at a global level and get assessments of quality of care. FINDINGS: For 18 service centres of Ganjam District, we found 357 health workers in our six cadre categories, to serve a population of 1.02 million. Total demand for the MCH services guaranteed under India's NRHM outpaced supply for every category of health worker but one. To properly serve the study population, the health workforce supply should be enhanced by 43 additional physicians, 15 nurses and 80 nurse midwives. Those numbers probably under-estimate the need, as they assume away geographic barriers. CONCLUSIONS: Our study established time standards in minutes for each MCH activity promised by the NRHM, which could be applied elsewhere in India by government planners and civil society advocates. Our calculations indicate significant numbers of new health workers are required to deliver the services promised by the NRHM.

Identifying the gaps between biodefense researchers, public health, and clinical practice in a rural community.

OBJECTIVE: It is essential for health care professionals to be prepared for a bioterrorist attack or other public health emergency. We sought to determine how well biodefense and emerging infectious disease research information was being disseminated to rural health care providers, first responders, and public health officials. METHODS: Semi-structured interviews were conducted at a federally funded research institution and a rural community in Washington state with 10 subjects, including researchers, community physicians and other health care providers, first responders, and public health officials. RESULTS: The interviews suggest there is inadequate information dissemination regarding biodefense and emerging infectious disease research and an overall lack of preparedness for a bioterrorist event among rural clinicians and first responders. Additionally, a significant communication gap exists between public health and clinical practice regarding policies for bioterrorism and emerging infectious disease. There was, however, support and understanding for the research enterprise in bioterrorism. CONCLUSIONS: Biodefense preparedness and availability of information about emerging infectious diseases continues to be a problem. Methods for information dissemination and the relationships between public health officials and clinicians in rural communities need to be improved.

Regional solutions to the physician workforce shortage: the WWAMI experience.

With major medical organizations predicting a national shortage of physicians in coming years, a number of institutional models are being considered to increase the numbers of medical students. At a time when the cost of building new medical schools is extremely expensive, many medical schools are considering alternative methods for expansion. One method is regional expansion. The University of Washington School of Medicine (UWSOM) has used regional expansion to extend medical education across five states without the need to build new medical schools or campuses. The WWAMI program (the acronym for Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, Idaho), which was developed in the early 1970s, uses existing state universities in five states for first-year education, the Seattle campus for second-year education, and clinical sites across all five states for clinical education. Advantages of regional expansion include increasing enrollment in a cost-effective fashion, increasing clinical training opportunities, responding to health care needs of surrounding regions and underserved populations, and providing new opportunities for community-based physicians to enhance their practice satisfaction. Challenges include finding basic-science faculty at regional sites with backgrounds appropriate to medical students, achieving educational equivalence across sites, and initiating new research programs. UWSOM's successful long-term regional development, recent expansion to Wyoming in 1997, and current consideration of adding a first-year site in Spokane, Washington, indicate that regional expansion is a viable option for expanding medical education.

Student providers aspiring to rural and underserved experiences at the University of Washington: promoting team practice among the health care professions.

In the United States there are shortages of health care providers for both rural and underserved populations. There are also shortages of interprofessional or team-based training programs. To address these problems, the University of Washington's Area Health Education Center program and School of Medicine offer a voluntary extracurricular program for students in the university's six health science schools. The Student Providers Aspiring to Rural and Underserved Experiences (SPARX) program is an interprofessional, student-operated, center/school-supported program consisting of a wide range of activities. SPARX supports students interested in practicing among rural and urban medically underserved patients and in interacting with their peers in other health professions schools. A brief history and description of the program are presented, along with results of a survey of students indicating that SPARX reinforces their interest in practice among the underserved and influences their understanding of other health professions. Data on residency choices of medical students who have participated in the SPARX program are presented, indicating that these students are more likely to select primary care residency programs than the average students in their classes.

Small town health care safety nets: report on a pilot study.

CONTEXT: Very little is known about the health care safety net in small towns, especially in towns where there is no publicly subsidized safety-net health care. PURPOSE: This pilot study of the primary care safety net in 7 such communities was conducted to start building knowledge about the rural safety net. METHODS: Interviews were conducted and secondary data collected to assess the community need for safety-net care, the health care safety-net role of public officials, and the availability of safety-net care at private primary care practices and its financial impact on these practices. FINDINGS: An estimated 20% to 40% of the people in these communities were inadequately insured and needed access to affordable health care, and private primary care practices in most towns played an important role in making primary care available to them. Most of the physician practices were owned or subsidized by a hospital or regional network, though not explicitly to provide charity care. It is likely this ownership or support enabled the practices to sustain a higher level of charity care than would have been possible otherwise. In the majority of communities studied, the leading public officials played no role in ensuring access to safety-net care. CONCLUSIONS: State and national government policy makers should consider subsidy programs for private primary care practices that attempt to meet the needs of the inadequately insured in the many rural communities where no publicly subsidized primary safety-net care is available. Subsidies should be directed to physicians in primary care shortage areas who provide safety-net care; this will improve safety-net access and, at the same time, improve physician retention by bolstering physician incomes. Options include enhanced Medicare physician bonuses and grants or tax credits to support income-related sliding fee scales.

Low-bandwidth, low-cost telemedicine consultations in rural family practice.

BACKGROUND: Telemedicine, based on the use of interactive video consultations, is being used more commonly in rural settings. This development is potentially important to rural patients because there are fewer physicians, particularly specialist physicians, in rural areas. Declining costs of telemedicine equipment and transmission have created increased access to these technologies for rural family physicians and their patients. METHODS: This study considers satisfaction levels of rural family physicians, academic-based specialists, and rural patients in 130 consultations between rural physicians, rural patients, and urban academic specialists. To increase the practicability for rural use, low-cost equipment and low-bandwidth digital telephone transmission lines were utilized. Data were collected using questionnaires that were completed by patients, family physicians, and specialist consultants after each consultation. RESULTS: All categories of participants noted very high levels of satisfaction. CONCLUSION: Telemedicine-based consultations are well accepted by rural patients, rural family physicians, and urban academic specialist consultants. This approach could offer a useful adjunct to rural health care.