Rural Health Pulse

Our guest Dr. Steve Hovan,  Dean of IUP John J. and Char Kopchick College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics discusses the construction of Kopchick Hall.  Once completed, the more than 142,000-square-foot Kopchick Hall will be the hub of activity for all things science and math at IUP and an important resource for rural health and medicine initiatives. 

Rural residents often face barriers to breast cancer screening and treatment.   In this episode, Dr.  Dan Clark,  Medical Director of the IRMC Comprehensive Breast Center , discusses the need for high quality, multidisciplinary breast care and the development of a nationally accredited breast center at Indiana Regional Medical Center. 

In this episode, the inaugural class of resident physicians at Indiana Regional Medical Center, Indiana, PA share their backgrounds, interests in rural family medicine and perspectives on their first year experience.   Guests include  Dr. Narinder Sangha, Dr. Mohit Chhatpar,  Dr. Tanvi Bharathan,  Dr. Nawar Al Janabi, and Dr.  Robin Rodriguez. 

Rapidly advancing technological developments are helping rural hospitals to improve the quality of care while decreasing hospitalization and recovery time.  In this episode, Dr.  Dan Clark, IRMC Director of Minimally Invasive and Robotic Surgery, discusses the adoption and growth of robotic surgery at Indiana Regional Medical Center.

In this episode, we discuss how wastewater surveillance was used to predict COVID-19 infection rates in a rural community setting.  Our guest is Dr. Rick Adkins, IUP professor of mathematics.

In this episode, we discuss how an innovative partnership between Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP) and Indiana Regional Medical Center (IRMC) solved the challenge of having rapid turn-around for COVID testing during the height of the pandemic.  Our guests Dr. Narayanaswamy Bharathan and Ms. Jackie Sansig share how the partnership started and continued to evolve.

In this episode, our topic is the establishment of a rural family medicine residency program at Indiana Regional Medical Center, Indiana, PA.  After years of planning, the IRMC Family Medicine Program welcomed its first cohort of six residents in July 2022.    Our guest, Dr. Amanda Vaglia, shares insights into the motivation for starting this program, its philosophy and future vision.