Medical schools try to fill the need for specialists in rural communities by creating programs with that aim

   

Some medical schools are looking for students willing to
locate in rural communities. (Javia Truba via Sunsplash)

Looking beyond the overall shortage of healthcare professionals in rural America, some medical schools are focusing on producing and placing specialists, reports Liz Carey in The Daily Yonder. The report notes that even in communities with a primary care physician, there is likely no cardiologist, surgeon, or even a dentist.

Medical schools serving those areas also recognize a growing elderly population, Carey reports. “Research has shown that rural areas already have more residents 65 and older (19%) than urban areas (15%), and that share is growing. Researchers expect the percentage of older people in rural communities to grow by more than 40% by 2034, making the disparities in care a larger concern.”

Medical schools from coast to coast are focused on addressing this issue. Carey’s report mentions the Quillen College of Medicine at East Tennessee State University, The University of Washington (with a program serving five states), The University of New Mexico School of Medicine, and the University of Minnesota Medical School, all of which have programs aimed at sending their graduates to rural, underserved areas.

Dr. Bill Block, dean of the Quillen College of Medicine at ETSU, told Carey: “Our surgical residency is designed specifically to prepare physicians for practice in rural and underserved communities, where access to subspecialists is often limited. … In rural areas, general surgeons must be prepared to manage a broader scope of cases independently.”

As much as the training needs to be focused on rural needs, funding is needed to provide incentives for students to go to rural areas. Some of the programs created by Congress for that purpose have expired, and new proposals have been stalled. And it is difficult to find students willing to locate in rural areas.

The Daily Yonder story cites a 2026 Medicus Firms survey: “Among physicians under 40, zero percent indicate a preference for rural practice,” the survey said, “while 12.5% of physicians age 60 and older express interest in rural settings. This generational gap is one of the most consequential physician recruitment challenges organizations face in 2026.”

Indiana creates nation’s first utility to provide electricity only to data centers; reaction is mixed among stakeholders

   

Power grids across rural America are facing the challenge
of serving data centers. (Andrew Metelev via Unsplash)

Rural Northwest Indiana has given the nod to what some think may be a solution to the power generation problem associated with data centers — a dedicated utility provider. Circle of Blue reports via RuralNewsNetwork.org that the idea is to “simultaneously protect ratepayers while continuing to embrace the industry’s growth.”

Christian Thorsberg writes about the boom of data centers in the region, “where nearly a dozen hyperscale data centers are planned, under construction or already operating.” Reaction to the first-of-its-kind utility has been mixed.

The region’s largest power producer, and the one with the highest rates, announced two years ago that because of inquiries from data center projects its power load was likely to quadruple over the next decade. That led to the company’s idea of creating a subsidiary to serve only data centers. Thorsberg explains that the proposal “was drawn up to shield regular ratepayers from extra costs of adding mega-users … to [the] network.” The subsidiary “would generate and sell electricity” wholesale to the parent company, “its only customer,” which would then sell it to data centers. “The buffer for resident’s rates would come from the mathematical accounting of these transactions, which in theory would remain separate from household bills.”

The plan received unanimous regulatory commission approval last fall, and it included exemptions for the subsidiary that speeds up the process. For example, the regulatory commission “does not need to approve all aspects of financing for projects,” and the subsidiary can “pick and choose” its customers.

The region appears to be bracing itself for the impact of this plan. Critics and experts are expressing concern about the effect on the environment, the grid’s efficiency, and whether the network can support the volume of electricity expected. “I’m not against the business model,” Jaoa Ferreira, acting director of the Center for Economic and Policy Studies at the University of Virginia, told Thorsberg. “One important thing for me is that this actually results in adding production to the grid, and not just splitting electricity from everyone else to just satisfy data centers.”