The California State Rural Health Association would like to congratulate all award recipients from this year's Conference!

This year CSRHA awarded 5 Rural Champion Awards. We would like to congratulate the following individuals for their extraordinary achievements on behalf of California’s Rural Communities:

Rural Champion in Legislative Service
Former Assemblymember Patty Berg
Senator Lois Wolk

Rural Champion in Community Leadership
Herrmann Spetzler, Open Door Community Health Centers
Peter Van Houten, MD, Sierra Family Medical Clinic Inc.
David Yarbrough, Briggs Gridley Memorial Hospital

To view a brief clip of this year’s awards ceremony please click here.

We would also like to congratulate our 2009 Poster Presentation Award recipients. The award was presented to Charla Parker, Sue Graue and Casie Parrish with Colusa Regional Medical Center. The Poster was titled “Engaging Youth in Exploring Health Careers” The Poster addressed the health profession shortage in Colusa County and how they have developed a workforce out of Colusa County students to address this issue. The poster highlighted the research done to document the need, the components of the core training class’s students take and profiles of some of the students who have completed the training.

For more information please click here.

Conference Presentations

HRSA Grants Technical Assistance Workshop

1. Grants Technical Assistance Workshop, Kathryn Umali, Health Resources and Services Administration
2. My Experience with Working Collaborations and Writing a HRSA Grant, Daquarii Rock, Project ACCESS

Rural e-Health Summit

1. Preparing for Meaningful Use and the Transformation of our Health Care Delivery System, Jonah Frolich, California Health and Human Services Agency
2. Optimizing your Health Information Technology (HIT) to Achieve Meaningful Use- Beyond EMR Functionality: Lessons Learned from an Early EMR Adopter, Dean Germano, Shasta Community Health Center
3. Hospital EHR, Mike Minear, University of California, Davis Health System
4. Implementing HIE in Rural: A Grassroots Community Project, Jami Young, Believe Health, LLC
5. The Landscape of Health Technology for Community Clinics Community Clinics Initiative, Kathy Ko, Community Clinics Initiative
6. North State Rural Health Network: E-Prescribing Pilot, Linda Kehoe, Northern Sierra Rural Health Network
7. Optimizing HIT/HIE to Achieve Meaningful Use, Toby Douglas, Department of Healthcare Services
8. Optimizing Community Health Information Technology for Meaningful Use, Will Ross, Redwood MedNET

Legislative Affairs Day

1. The Federal Rural Health Policy Landscape, Carrie Cochran, Health Resources and Services Administration, Office of Rural Health
2. NRHA National Affairs Update, Danny Fernandez, National Rural Health Association
3. State Affairs Update, Sam Willburn, California State Office of Rural Health

Leadership Development Day

1. Navigating Together Through the Rewards and Trials of Rural Health Leadership, Hilda Heady, Rural Health Development, West Virginia University
2. Burden of Poverty, Beth Landon, National Rural Health Association
3. Healthcare Industry Reform, One Rural Community at a Time, Mike Kaminaka, Physicians Health/Major Medical Integrated, Inc.
4. Best Practices in eHealth: Optimizing Telehealth In California, Christine Martin, California Telemedicine and eHealth Center
5. School Based Telehealth: An Innovative Approach to Meet the Health Care Needs of California’s Rural Children, Jenny Kattlove, The Children's Partnership
6. A Brief Overview of the Future of Telehealth, Speranza Avram
7. Strategic Restructuring for Community Clinics, California HealthCare Foundation
8. National Needs Assessment on Outreach Programs and the Farmworkers They Serve, Adam Sharma, Health Outreach Partners
9. Meeting the Challenges in California Rural Health Clinics, Gail Nickerson, Adventist Health
10. The Electronic Record: Planning is Crucial, Lynn Edwards, Bear Valley Community Healthcare District