Survivors of traumatic injury who live in rural America face many challenges to recovery due to limited access to specialized services, geographic barriers, and socioeconomic factors including lower baseline income levels and higher rates of uninsurance.

While nearly 20% of the U.S. population lives in areas defined as rural, rural patients are substantially underrepresented in studies of trauma survivorship. In a new project funded through a Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) Engagement Grant, Marta McCrum, MD, trauma surgeon-scientist at the University of Utah, seeks to address the disparities in post-trauma recovery that plague those who live outside metropolitan and suburban areas.

“Utah is a major trauma center that serves a large five-state catchment area,” said Dr. McCrum, who grew up in northern Alberta, Canada and knows something about access to care issues. “We appreciate our patients’ struggles with accessing trauma care and high-level post-discharge care. This project will help us understand our patients’ perspectives with respect to their recovery and identify ways we can help improve their experience.”

Dr. McCrum is now seeking input from surgeons and physicians involved in trauma patient care, therapists, social workers and advocacy groups for the next phase of her project: “Building Capacity for PCOR/CER by Engaging Rural Trauma Survivors and their Recovery Communities.”

This group of professional caregivers will be led through a guided discussion to identify gaps in existing research related to rural trauma care and then later will prioritize these topics for future research proposals using the Stakeholder Engagement Question Development and Prioritization (SEED) method.

Zoom sessions for trauma care professionals are scheduled for April 28, 2025 (5-6 pm central) and May 5, 2025 (5-6:30 pm central).

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