Summarizes the 20-year history of the Appalachian Regional Commission's innovative, flexible, $550M model health care delivery system. Cites achievements in establishing primary care clinics; tackling black lung disease; and expanding health manpower, health education, maternal and child health care, and rehabilitation centers. (NEC)

Traces Southern West Virginia Regional Health Council's decade of delivering/linking cradle-to-grave health services for 500,000 rural residents. Describes microwave communications radio network; clinics; services in family planning, genetic counseling, prenatal care, maternal/child care, nutrition, heart/respiratory disease screening, renal…

The article describes North Carolina's precedent setting Office of Rural Health Services, its background and design, and its significant role in the development of primary health care clinics such as that in Balsom Grove which is staffed by a family nurse practitioner and enjoying wide community support. (SB)

Describes a rural West Virginia health-care center as a successful model program for integration between the clinic and community. Describes center facilities, funding sources, community cooperation, and cooperative residency program with regional medical school. Discusses implications for other medical-education programs. Describes differences…

Student health professionals, working as assistants to communities with serious health care problems, helped develop the Shuqualak health center in an area with the highest infant mortality rate in the United States. Describes the Community Technical Assistance Program and the history of the Shuqualak project. (SB)