Want to address the rural health crisis? Ask Guam...

The U.S. State Department invited me to address a group, mostly Fulbright scholars, on Alabama Public Radio's yearlong investigation of rural health. This effort was recognized with the 50th annual Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for Radio. APR was also selected over fellow RFK winners like the New York Times, The Washington Post, PBS Frontline, and ABC-TV to receive the “John Siegenthaler Prize for Courage in Journalism.” That additional award honors the newsroom that went above and beyond to do their RFK winning story. APR is the first radio newsroom ever to be so recognized. I’d say we have “third world conditions” in Alabama when it comes to health care, but I interviewed a young couple in Perry County who actually lived in a third world country and got better medical treatment there compared to Alabama. Around eight counties in the state have no hospital, and one county doesn’t even have a doctor. That’s at a time when Alabama is among the worst in the nation for comorbidities like obesity, diabetes, hypertension, premature births, and maternal mortality. On that subject, APR interviewed a new mother from Greene County who spent three hours in an ambulance, in full blown labor, after she went into labor and had complications.

APR’s rural health project was selected because the State Department’s conference in Birmingham was about rural issues with global impact. I’m wearing the red tie in this group shot above. My audience included Fulbright fellows, along with one Peace Corps alum, another with the Youth Exchange with the German Bundestag, and one from Young Leaders of the Pacific. Two more are with the National Security Language Institute. They all shared their own experiences dealing with rural health and rural communities, which was the theme of the conference. There were also innovative ideas for solutions and Federal policy changes--along with all the questions! One young lady did ask for stories from my 14 years covering NASA for NPR (it happens.)

And that’s where Guam comes in. I spoke for about an hour on the issues APR addressed during our rural health project. That included audio excerpts from the stories we produced. I told my audience that I was happy to talk about what the APR team did, but I wanted to hear what they found working on rural issues on a global scale. Lawrence Alcairo of Guam had something to offer. He represented the group “Young Leaders of the Pacific.” He talked about how Guam deploys paramedics, normally associated with urban area, to rural communities. They use their telemetry equipment to beam medical details on patients to doctors miles away. Great idea I never heard about before. Lawrence’s shirt was cool, as well!

My talk for the U.S. State Department also turned into a “public radio booster club” in a hurry. That’s where I met Mitch Teplitsky. He’s a Fulbright fellow, a documentary filmmaker, and he works for the biggest independent bookstore in Indiana. Mitch and the store are also supporters of my friends and colleagues at NPR station WILL-FM. We swapped stories after my talk, until the next group of presenters got ready. Many thanks to the State Department for including APR in such a great event.