Telehealth for Communities: Toward Eliminating Rural Health Disparities

Abstract

The National Healthcare Disparities Report (NHDR) (2007) documents issues in both quality of healthcare and access to healthcare providing information to policymakers, clinicians, administrators, and community leaders for the improvement of health. From this report it is apparent that disparities in healthcare still exist and that many opportunities for improvement remain across racial, ethnic, socioeconomic and geographical groups. One priority population is the rural, medically underserved areas. Residents of rural areas experience more health disparities than residents of urban areas (NHDR, 2007).