The nation’s most rural academic medical center, Dartmouth Health’s Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center is home to the Center for Rural Health Care Delivery Science. While nearly 20% of Americans live in rural areas and experience greater health challenges than those in cities, research in this field is limited. Disrupting that trend, the mentorship model supports early-career researchers focused on rural health disparities to develop data, system infrastructure and community partnerships to improve rural health. Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center is consistently ranked New Hampshire’s No. 1 hospital by U.S. News & World Report, it has the state’s only level 1 adult and level 2 pediatric trauma center, children’s hospital and the only NCI-designated comprehensive cancer center in the U.S that’s not located in an urban hub. It is also the only federal-designated level 2 special pathogen treatment center in Northern New England, equipped to care for high-consequence infectious diseases. Among many innovations helping patients is Dartmouth Health and New Hampshire Legal Assistance program, which allows healthcare providers to connect to patients directly with an on-site attorney for consultations, advice and representation for non-criminal legal issues that impact overall health and wellness. The medical center’s new prescription solution significantly reduces environmental waste and enhances sustainability by using compostable, paper-based and curbside-recyclable prescription bottles for patients’ medications. It also received a federal grant to launch the North Country Maternity Network to address rural maternity gaps, since nearly half of New Hampshire’s labor and delivery units have closed over 25 years.
