Montana is the most rural state in the West region, and improving overall health and reducing risks among rural children requires a comprehensive understanding of how prevention strategies can be developed for, adapted to, and tested in rural communities. Among the barriers faced by investigators addressing important rural health issues is the difficulty in accessing electronic medical records and other sensitive data sources outside an academic medical center. For the first time in Montana, the DM Core will provide a central resource for capture and management of electronic health records, vital statistics and other sensitive records across multiple providers and data sources. Another challenge faced by rural health investigators is that rural communities present unique challenges from a data analytics perspective. In particular, rural communities are more insular, more sparsely populated, have more limited environmental monitoring, and often have less access to health-related resources. Such factors will require innovative biostatistical and modeling approaches that are supported by high performance computing (HPC) capabilities. The DM Core will provide the biostastistical and modeling expertise as well as the HPC resources to address these challenges. Overall, the DM Core will provide the necessary data science, biostatistical, mathematical, and computational resources to successfully support and conduct prevention research for rural communities.
