HRSA Administrator Meets Peace Corps Director

Peace Corps Director Dr. Jody Olsen met with HRSA Administrator Dr. George Sigounas on Jan. 10

Newly appointed Peace Corps Director Dr. Jody Olsen met with HRSA Administrator Dr. George Sigounas on January 10 for a staff briefing on agency programs that serve needy people overseas. "Through our global health programs, and our mission to serve people who need it most, we look forward to working with the Peace Corps," Dr. Sigounas said. More than 45 former Peace Corps volunteers who have served in 24 countries work at HRSA.

Phase 1 Winners of HRSA's Care Coordination for Children with Special Health Care Needs Challenge Announced

HRSA's Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB) has selected 7 winners from Phase 1 of the Care Coordination for Children with Special Health Care Needs (CSHCN) Challenge.

The winning innovations are technology-based solutions to help families of CSHCN coordinate the care their children receive from a variety of health care professionals and specialists.

The innovations selected target different populations, including families in rural and frontier regions, and leverage HRSA investments.

See a list of the Phase 1 winners.

National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program highlighted in JAMA

HRSA’s Healthcare Systems Bureau administers the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP). The VICP provides compensation to people injured by certain vaccines given routinely to children and adults, such as seasonal flu vaccine, measles, mumps, rubella or polio.

The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) published an article discussing the purpose and importance of the VICP.

To learn more about the VICP program, view our infographic (PDF - 1.1 MB).

Substance Use Disorder Workforce Loan Repayment Application Chat

Join National Health Service Corps (NHSC) for its SUD Workforce LRP Facebook Application Chat on January 17, 8:00 - 9:30 p.m. ET. Speak to NHSC staff, NHSC-approved site administrators and NHSC current and past members to get your questions about the application answered.

RSVP today at the event page.

Rural Residency Program: Webinars on Accreditation and Finance

Are you considering development of a rural residency program?

The Rural Residency and Planning Technical Assistance Center funded by HRSA is providing two 60-minute webinars on the accreditation process for rural residency programs on Tuesday, January 22 and financing options for rural residency programs on Monday, January 28. The purpose of these webinars is to help you assess/improve aspects of your program that will lead to a successful rural residency program.

Deadline to submit an application to the Rural Residency Planning and Development grant program is March 4.

Visit RuralGME.org to register for the webinars.

Webinar: Improving Cervical Cancer Screening Rates: Perspectives from a Health Center and a Health Center Controlled Network

Tuesday, January 29: 1:00pm - 2:00pm ET.

In observance of Cervical Health Awareness Month, the Bureau of Primary Health Care is hosting a Speaker Series to explore perspectives from La Red Health Center and OCHIN, Inc. on initiatives to improve cervical cancer screening rates. Register to attend.

For questions, please contact Mew Rattanawatkul at KRattanawatkul@hrsa.gov and Victoria Oliver at VOliver@hrsa.gov.

Webinar: Workforce Approaches to Violence Prevention and Response Across the Life Course

Thursday, January 31: 2:00 - 3:00 pm ET

As part of HRSA's Strategy to Address Intimate Partner Violence, HRSA will host a webinar to discuss workforce approaches to violence prevention and response across the life course. Topics will include:

Advanced Nursing Education – Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners (ANE-SANE) Program Overview
The Developing Brain and Preventing Adverse Childhood Events (ACEs)
Dynamics of Elder Abuse
Overview of Intimate Partner Violence Toolkit

Data.hrsa.gov Data Portal

The data.hrsa.gov Data Portal allows you to explore, compare and extract HRSA data about grants, Health Centers and other sites, shortage areas and more. Add data columns and customize the results to filter and sort the exact information you need. You can even export your data results to an Excel file.

Try the Data Portal today - we welcome your feedback at data@hrsa.gov.

The "Loneliness Epidemic"

photo of five elderly people, one of whom is talking with their grandchild

Loneliness and social isolation can be as damaging to health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day, researchers warned in a recent webcast, and the problem is particularly acute among seniors, especially during holidays.

Two in five Americans report that they sometimes or always feel their social relationships are not meaningful, and one in five say they feel lonely or socially isolated. The lack of connection can have life threatening consequences, said Brigham Young University professor Julianne Holt-Lunstad, who testified before the U.S. Senate in April, 2017 that the problem is structural as well as psychological.