Mayo Clinic to create national learning collaborative among rural health care providers

Mayo Clinic Health System Practice-Based Research Network (PBRN) is sharing in an $11 million government grant to lead the creation of a national learning collaborative among rural health care providers. The effort is part of a national partnership using the Health Care Innovation Award funded by the Affordable Care Act.

"This is a great opportunity for us to share health care knowledge and best practices with our colleagues to improve health care in rural communities nationally," says Paul Targonski, M.D., Ph.D., who leads the Mayo PBRN. "It's also a great important way for us to learn from our partners' expertise and experiences in rural health care, as well as leverage research to help solve the nation's health care problems."

The network is partnering with rural clinics and communities to help them work together to deliver better health care. It is leading the efforts within the grant to create and evaluate the outcomes of sustainable local learning collaboratives that will drive health practice improvements.

Partners in the project include Mineral Regional Health Center, Superior, Mont.; The Appalachian Osteopathic Postgraduate Training Institute Consortium, Pikeville, Ky.; iVantage Health Analytics, Portland, Maine; and Montana's frontier and rural health care communities. The specific award, the "Frontier Medicine Better Health Partnership," is intended to develop and implement a network to standardize operations and efficiencies across Montana's medical practices, including tertiary care centers, critical access hospitals, and rural health clinics. Training will be provided to participating sites, and support will include health improvement specialists, electronic health record specialists and data analysis.