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Florida State University has been awarded more than $19 million in grants through the Rural Health Transformation Program<\/a>\u00a0to launch six new\u00a0College of Medicine<\/a>\u00a0projects and provide resources to improve the quality of life of individuals and communities throughout the state.\u00a0<\/p>\n The five-year,\u00a0$50 billion\u00a0Rural Health Transformation Program, administered\u00a0through the Centers for Medicare\u00a0&\u00a0Medicaid Services,\u00a0was\u00a0authorized by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act,\u00a0signed\u00a0into law in\u00a0July 2025.\u00a0The program is designed\u00a0to help states transform and update healthcare delivery by improving access,\u00a0quality\u00a0and outcomes, thereby strengthening rural communities.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Florida received\u00a0nearly\u00a0$210 million\u00a0this year and, through the\u00a0Florida Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA)<\/a>, awarded\u00a0more than\u00a0$180 million to fund proposals\u00a0across the state.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cFSU received the largest award among Florida\u2019s higher education institutions and was the state\u2019s second-largest recipient overall,\u201d\u00a0said FSU President Richard McCullough.\u00a0\u201cThis remarkable investment reflects the strength of our partnerships, the\u00a0expertise\u00a0of our faculty,\u00a0and the important work being done through FSU Health and the College of Medicine to address healthcare challenges in communities across our state. These projects will expand access to care, strengthen local healthcare resources, and help deliver better outcomes for rural Floridians.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The FSU College of Medicine\u00a0was uniquely positioned to apply\u00a0for\u00a0these grants, as its\u00a0community-based, collaborative\u00a0structure is focused on developing partnerships\u00a0with a special emphasis on providing care to\u00a0underserved\u00a0patients\u00a0throughout Florida.\u00a0AHCA made collaboration a key requirement for the grant proposals, noting that partnerships should help expand reach, close\u00a0gaps\u00a0and make the most of shared resources.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cCommunity partnerships are essential to building a healthier Florida,\u201d said Dr. Alma Littles, dean of the FSU College of Medicine and president of the\u00a0Florida Medical Association<\/a>. \u201cWe know how important it is to bring healthcare directly into the communities that need it most. I saw that firsthand as a family physician in rural Gadsden County in Florida\u2019s Panhandle, and in my work across the state, I continue to see gaps in care that we can help close. Rural Floridians deserve access to high-quality, compassionate care.\u00a0Meaningful progress will take collaboration,\u00a0innovation\u00a0and a sustained commitment to the people we serve.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cFSU received the largest award among Florida\u2019s higher education institutions and was the state\u2019s second-largest recipient overall,\u201d\u00a0said FSU President Richard McCullough.\u00a0\u201cThis remarkable investment reflects the strength of our partnerships, the expertise of our faculty, and the important work being done through FSU Health and the College of Medicine to address healthcare challenges in communities across our state.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n FSU\u2019s grant proposals focus on key rural health challenges, including food insecurity, behavioral health, preventive care, workforce\u00a0development\u00a0and telehealth. To guide planning and funding, AHCA\u00a0identified\u00a0Florida\u2019s rural counties, as defined by state law, and grouped them into four\u00a0regions: Northwest, Northeast,\u00a0Southwest\u00a0and Southeast. The FSU College of Medicine developed proposals for the Northwest and Southwest regions, where it already has\u00a0established\u00a0programs and partnerships.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The Northwest Region is a central hub for\u00a0FSU Health<\/a>, with a new FSU Health Hospital under construction in Panama City Beach and the FSU Health Research and Collaboration Building scheduled to open this fall on the\u00a0Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare\u00a0campus. In Southwest Florida, the college\u00a0operates\u00a0its\u00a0Immokalee Health Education Site<\/a>\u00a0and sponsors residency and fellowship programs at several hospitals.\u00a0<\/p>\n The two projects in Northwest Florida receiving funds will\u00a0tackle food insecurity, preventive\u00a0care\u00a0and at-home care. Four new projects to launch in Southwest Florida will focus on workforce development,\u00a0behavioral health, telehealth, food insecurity, preventive\u00a0care\u00a0and at-home care.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThese projects reflect exactly why FSU Health was created: to bring together research, clinical expertise and community partnerships to address some of the most pressing health challenges facing Floridians,\u201d said\u00a0FSU Vice President for Research\u00a0Stacey S. Patterson. \u201cBy focusing on rural communities, we can help turn discovery and innovation into practical solutions that expand access, improve outcomes and strengthen the health of people across the state.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Heather Flynn,\u00a0professor and chair\u00a0of the\u00a0FSU\u00a0College of Medicine\u2019s\u00a0Department of Behavioral Sciences and Social Medicine<\/a>,\u00a0played a key role in shepherding\u00a0the grant process along and assembling teams of\u00a0researchers, healthcare providers and community organizations to\u00a0develop solid plans that will\u00a0have a direct impact on the\u00a0health and\u00a0lives of Floridians. No stranger to collaborative\u00a0work,\u00a0Flynn is also\u00a0director of the\u00a0FSU Center for Behavioral Health Integration<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the main things I learned through this process is that there are a lot of extremely dedicated, high-quality clinicians, staff and administrators in the rural areas that are doing everything they can to help the patients and families in their communities with a system that is not connected and\u00a0one that\u00a0needs a lot of improvement\u00a0and innovation,\u201d Flynn said.\u00a0\u201cYou\u2019ve got all of these different healthcare centers, sites, organizations\u00a0\u2014\u00a0all doing the best they can with the resources they have\u00a0\u2014\u00a0to provide access and quality care to patients and families\u00a0\u2014\u00a0and they know they don\u2019t have what they need to do that adequately. So,\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0very frustrating.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI learned people are very eager to partner,\u201d Flynn added. \u201cOf course, there are always business considerations that may pose\u00a0some barriers to those partnerships, but what I learned is people are willing to look past\u00a0that\u00a0and work together to fill those gaps in rural areas.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Flynn said the work must move quickly: Sept. 30 is the federal deadline for\u00a0demonstrating\u00a0significant progress\u00a0in launching the projects.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe could not\u00a0make this happen without the support of the university\u00a0as well as\u00a0the faculty and staff who are working diligently to ensure we meet this deadline and begin to make a\u00a0positive\u00a0impact on the health\u00a0of people across the state,\u201d\u00a0she\u00a0said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Florida State University has been awarded more than $19 million in grants through the Rural Health Transformation Program\u00a0to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":369516,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[146654,71202,28,30,29,13586,80092,83163],"class_list":["post-369515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-alma-littles","tag-college-of-medicine","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-fsu-health","tag-president-richard-mccullough","tag-stacey-patterson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=369515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369515\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/369516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}