Penn State College of Medicine
Health information disparities exist across the United States. The Rural Health Conference sponsored by the Pennsylvania Office of Rural Health is an annual meeting that seeks to bridge the health information disparities gap among rural underserved health care professionals in Central Pennsylvania.
The focus of the NN/LM exhibit at the Rural Health Conference: Roots of Change was to increase the awareness of and access to quality health information for underserved health professionals in rural Central Pennsylvania communities. Ultimately, the goal was to improve health outcomes by enhancing health literacy and contributing to the informed decision making process.
Approximately 150 health administrators and policy makers, health providers including physicians, social workers, nurses, healthcare advocates, health educators and rural community agency representatives and extension agents from across the state attended the Rural Health Conference. Of the 150 attendees 85 visited the NN/LM exhibit to receive promotional materials and NLM database searching tips. Topics of interested included diabetes, AIDS, environmental health and consumer health.
Valerie Gross- Penn State University- College of Medicine- Hershey, PA
