An aerial shot of rural Kansas shows a two-lane road cutting through green fields at the beginning of the growing season. A small barn and farmhouse are nestled in a thicket of trees, and silver grain silos are situated on the horizon.

Reviving Rural Health

As rural healthcare providers face shortages in staff, funding, and resources, Jayhawks help Kansas communities access the care they need.

KU helps Kansans get better — better access, better treatments, better outcomes.

Rural communities are the heart of Kansas and the lifeblood of the state’s economy. To improve people’s health in these communities, the University of Kansas develops healthcare professionals and helps patients connect with care. We match students and graduates with practices experiencing shortages and create local training sites to increase skills and retention in rural areas.

An infographic illustrates the different types of healthcare professionals KU trains, including doctors, nurses, pediatricians, pharmacists, primary care physicians, OB-GYNs, radiologists, specialists, surgeons, physical therapists, respiratory therapists, sonographers, nutritionists, occupational therapists, and more.

Closing the gaps

You should not have to wait months or travel hundreds of miles for quality healthcare. To help more Kansans get to their appointments, KU facilitates patient travel or brings care closer to home.
A nurse in black scrubs holds a baby in an exam room setting. A smiling doctor in a white coat sits nearby, ready to examine the baby.

Reducing miles between patient and provider

The University of Kansas has a standard-setting legacy of leadership in rural healthcare. Leveraging cutting-edge technology, KU reduces patient travel, missed appointments, and delayed care. Our initiatives in Kansas, such as our partnership with Care Collaborative, serve as inspiration for other states. 

Since 1991, Kansans have connected more easily with specialists in maternal health, neurology, pulmonology, rheumatology, endocrinology, behavioral and mental health, and more thanks to KU’s Center for Telemedicine & Telehealth, which allows patients to meet with their doctors by phone or computer. This telemedicine program was one of the first in the country.

Cancer patients in Kansas can also meet with their doctors via telehealth because KU created the country’s first tele-oncology program in 1995.

To ensure Kansas kids can see the pediatricians and specialists they need, KU created TeleKidcare in 1997 — the nation’s first school-based telemedicine program for elementary students.

A doctor in a white coat looks into the ear of her patient during an exam. The doctor’s coat is embroidered with the words University of Kansas Health System, and she is wearing a KU ID badge.

Addressing provider shortages 

The healthcare crisis in Kansas goes back generations. Providers were too few, or too far away, to help large areas of Kansas. By creating new programs, curriculums, and campuses, KU has been infusing the healthcare workforce with quality providers for decades.

KU recruits and prepares medical students from rural areas to practice medicine in underserved communities. But we don’t stop at developing students from rural areas. Our curriculum for all students prioritizes Kansas’ rural healthcare workforce. Starting in year one, we supply rural providers with helping hands from the KU School of Medicine. These students gain incomparable experience and perspective that increase the likelihood they will pursue careers in rural areas. For many, that means serving their hometowns. 

KU was the first medical school in the country to require rural service of all graduates. Healthcare professionals in El Dorado, Garden City, Hays, Hutchinson, Manhattan, Pittsburgh, Salina, and Winfield benefit from extra support, while students experience the realities and rewards of rural medical practice.

To deepen future providers’ understanding of and commitment to rural health, KU provides immersive training opportunities for all medical students throughout their education.

FIRST YEAR
Rural Enrichment Week provides students with hands-on training alongside a family physician. Participants come away with an invaluable understanding of the complexities of improving health in rural areas and the critical role physicians play.

SECOND YEAR
Participants in the Summer Training Option in Rural Medicine train in primary care settings across Kansas. Students share their experiences with the KU network, providing insights that help us remove barriers to care in rural communities.

THIRD YEAR
Students can spend a full year lending support to local surgeons, pediatricians, family medicine physicians, and OB-GYNs in rural communities while building clinical knowledge and skills.

FOURTH YEAR
As a requirement for graduation, all students complete a four-week primary care rotation through KU’s groundbreaking Rural Preceptorship program. 

A freight train on the horizon is framed by green grass and blue sky as it moves toward grain silos in the distance. The word CARE is spray-painted on the side of the last car.

Facilitating care close to home

Travel is a challenge for many Kansans. When the distance to medical care is too great or patients need help commuting, KU programs offer support. 

Many Kansans make it to their medical appointments with the help of KU’s Rural Transit Assistance Program, a partnership with local transportation providers that started in 1987. 

Saving lives through early detection, the HOPE on Wheels mobile medical unit brings critical cancer screenings to communities across the state. 

Jayhawks also travel to White Cloud and Dodge City to provide hearing exams and to Nicodemus to operate a free health clinic. 

The HOPE on Wheels mobile unit sits in a parking lot in front of three bare trees. It’s the size and shape of a large RV and is covered in an image of wheat and blue sky, as well as the logos for the Masonic Cancer Alliance, the University of Kansas Cancer Center, the University of Kansas Health System, and the Kansas Freemasons. Text on the side of the vehicle reads, HOPE on Wheels. Health Outreach Prevention Education. Mobile Cancer Screenings.

Cutting the distance to top-tier cancer expertise

KU helps patients connect virtually with one of the top 1% cancer treatment and research programs in the country. The University of Kansas Cancer Center is the region’s only National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated comprehensive cancer center. Studies show that patients treated by an NCI-designated cancer center have a 25% greater chance of survival. KU’s telemedicine network helps more patients access the experts they need, reducing wait times for appointments, diagnosis, and treatment. 
 

Collage with a 1940s photo of a physician interacting with a young patient as a parent looks on, a bright yellow sunflower, students in scrubs standing around a medical dummy in a hospital bed, an exterior view of KU’s Wichita campus building, a University of Kansas medical building in the early 1900s, and a stethoscope and EKG lines over a blue background in the shape of the state of Kansas.

Dedication spanning decades

Since 1880, generations of Jayhawks have cared for generations of Kansans.

KU is one of the top producers of graduates who practice medicine in rural and underserved areas and one of the oldest rural physician development pipelines in the country. To address the staff shortages and challenging distances reported by rural Kansas communities, KU has created courses, curriculums, incentives, and entire schools and campuses.  

1880   KU offers its first medical course.

1885   The KU School of Pharmacy was established.

1905   The KU School of Medicine opened.

1906   KU’s nursing program began.

1949   In response to Kansas’ rural healthcare crisis, Jayhawks took action. KU’s Murphy Plan changed the history of healthcare in Kansas and set a standard for the rest of the country by sending medical students to rural areas to learn from and assist local physicians. KU also created new courses to develop rural health expertise and incentives that encouraged graduates to serve in rural areas — practices we continue to this day.

1971   To train more physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and other healthcare professionals in south central and western Kansas, KU opened its Wichita campus.

2011   To address critical healthcare shortages across Kansas, KU created its Salina campus.

2020   KU established the Rural Health Task Force to address rural health disparities across Kansas.

2022   KU launched the Kansas Center for Rural Health to expand specialist and telehealth access and support the recruitment and retention of quality healthcare professionals across the state. 

2025   To develop central and rural Kansas’ healthcare workforce, KU began a partnership with McPherson College.

2027  In partnership with Wichita State University, the Wichita Biomedical Campus will welcome its first students.

 

Jayhawks show up for Kansans

Centering local wisdom, KU’s vast network improves Kansas healthcare.

Facing severe and long-standing challenges, rural providers must do more with less. To lighten providers’ loads, Jayhawks take on research, analysis, advocacy, and statewide continuing education so physicians can focus on providing care.

Jayhawks maintain both a bird’s-eye view of systemic difficulties and an intimate understanding of the day-to-day reality of rural medicine. With regional hubs and statewide reach, the KU community bridges distances, develops solutions, and improves lives across Kansas.
A collage of two photos: A KU-trained doctor speaking with a patient in a flannel shirt and ball cap, and In a hospital room, a medical student trains tends to a patient simulator mannequin.

Where there are conversations that affect Kansans, KU is there as an ally and advocate for patients and providers across the state.

Explore more KU endeavors improving health across Kansas

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