More than 20 percent of people in the United States live in rural communities—but when it comes to heart health, where a person lives can make a life-changing difference.
Professor of Medicine Kan Liu, MD, PhD, MBA co-authored a new paper published in JAMA Cardiology reporting that rural residents face a higher burden of cardiovascular disease and are more likely to die from heart-related conditions than people living in urban areas. These disparities are driven by a complex mix of factors, including income, transportation, insurance coverage, and other social and demographic barriers that make accessing care more difficult.
A key part of the problem is access to specialized cardiac services. While the number of hospitals and clinics offering cardiovascular imaging has grown in recent years, advanced imaging technologies remain concentrated in large urban academic medical centers. Rural hospitals are less likely to have cutting-edge diagnostic tools on site.
Compounding the issue is a nationwide shortage of trained professionals who can perform and interpret cardiovascular imaging studies. Rural communities are particularly affected, as they often struggle to recruit and retain highly specialized staff.
Together, these gaps limit the ability of rural health care providers to quickly and accurately diagnose patients with suspected heart conditions. Improving access to advanced imaging technologies and expanding the specialized workforce, say Liu and his collaborators, could play an important role in narrowing the rural-urban divide in cardiovascular health outcomes.