The Idaho Office of Underserved and Rural Medical Research
The Idaho Office of Underserved and Rural Medical Research (IOURMR: pronunciation = I·aar·mr)
Mission
Our mission is to improve the health of Idaho’s underserved and rural communities through the purposeful integration of medical education, research, and service to advance clinical practice and patient care in our state.
IOURMR was built on four pillars; research and evaluation, Project ECHO Idaho, North Idaho AHEC and the Office of Continuing Education.
Vision
We aspire to serve Idaho communities to increase access to health care and advance the quality of care available to reduce health care inequities and improve the quality of life of Idahoans. We aim to work from a perspective informed by the experiences, needs and goals of Idaho’s rural/frontier and underserved communities. We seek to meet the healthcare needs of our rural/frontier and underserved communities using a multifaceted approach:
- Support the recruiting, training and retaining of outstanding healthcare providers;
- Enhance quality of care and health outcomes through education and research;
- Reduce feelings of isolation and improve the professional quality of life for Idaho’s healthcare providers; and
- Reduce health disparities experienced in Idaho’s rural and frontier communities through innovative uses of technology, the utilization of practice-based mentoring and research networks and increased communication and transparency of research and policy outcomes.
Core Principles
- To increase access to evidence-based contemporary healthcare in Idaho’s rural and underserved communities.
- To study the impact of education and policies that affect health care access and quality to meet the needs of Idaho’s rural and underserved residents and communities.
- To conduct research to inform health care education, the advancement of clinical practice and the development of policy to benefit Idaho’s underserved and rural communities.
- To diminish healthcare inequities across Idaho’s rural/frontier and underserved communities, while improving the quality of life of these Idaho residents.
- To educate policymakers on the outcomes of our efforts to benefit the Idaho communities we serve.
- To support Idaho WWAMI initiatives to develop and retain a robust health care workforce in Idaho.