University wins grant to help improve rural health care

Des Moines University’s Osteopathic Medical Center has won a three-year federal grant to help improve health care in rural areas of Iowa. Program Director Jodi Cahalan says the 200-thousand dollar grant will help improve the training of physician assistants or P-A’s. Cahlan says the training will focus on community health assessment and patient education. The first year of the program is focused on classroom training, the second year the students go to a community. She says they rural areas have a real need for this service, as one-third of the University’s graduates are working in communities of less than 10-thousand.Cahalan says they hope the program will encourage graduates to stay and work in the rural areas.