@janprobst.bsky.social

The staggering sweep of cuts made by this admin is hard to keep track of, but @scottlgreer.bsky.social @xrkulik.bsky.social @hjarman.bsky.social & I did our best, examining health policy effects of executive actions, rescissions, the OBBBA & the budget requests. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

This is an interesting study, but... Sam the rural health advocate sighs. The study is not based on county-year *observations,* it uses county-year *estimates* derived from 732 "commuting zones." Nonetheless, minoritized rural counties light up. #PowerOfRuralCats jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

Important analysis, shared by Sam the rural health advoCATe. Sam notes that rural populations are among those affected by gerrymandering and the associated loss of power to affect their health care environment. #PowerOfRuralCats jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

Private equity owns less than 4% of U.S. hospitals, WashU research finds source.washu.edu/2026/10/priv...

Rural folks have been warning about this impending disaster since HR 1 was originally proposed, hisses Sam the rural health advoCATe. It is time for folks with opposable thumbs to *do* something. #PowerOfRuralCats www.beckershospitalreview.com/finance/medi...

University of Maryland is hosting this year's USS conference right now. It's great! 1856project.umd.edu/uss-conferen...

THIS.

As one of the candidates featured in these polls - the infamous one in late June that showed me plummeting into single digits (which was at odds with our internals) - here's the impact of this "experiment"

Rural Minnesota hospitals' operations are withering. They say 'profiteering' drugmakers, insurers are to blame www.fiercehealthcare.com/providers/ru...

A new report found Elon Musk’s DOGE canceled $470 MILLION in grants and spending for Indian Country. The federal government’s obligation to tribes goes back to treaties, and many advocates are saying the cuts amount to treaty violations.

In my most curmudgeonly moments, I don’t see why presenting the prose output of a machine built on mass theft as your own scholarly work should be evaluated less harshly than old school plagiarism. Traditional plagiarists at least had to identify and evaluate the works they were going to copy.

Black Lung Disease Remains a Threat, but Federal Officials Delay Effort To Address It dailyyonder.com/black-lung-d...

Growing up rural, Sam's guardian remembers the family doc driving out in the SNOW to provide home-based care. Interesting to see what level of home-based care is currently feasible in rural, responsing to this call for papers. #PowerOfRuralCats journals.sagepub.com/page/mcr/hom...

Shared by Sam the rural health advoCATe, in case rural folks are interested. Infectious disease does not stop at city borders. #PowerOfRuralCats us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Grimly shared by Sam the rural health advoCATe. Physician barriers more severely affect rural places. #PowerOfRuralCats When Idaho Banned Abortion, OB-GYNs Fled. The Doctors Who Stayed Are Cracking. www.nytimes.com/2026/10/20/m...?

This is a beautful, honest, brave and necessary post from my colleague @iwashyna.bsky.social -- a brilliant deeply caring physician and healer but also now, and forever, the son of an alcoholic. Please read and reflect.

Guys, Sam's guardian had three (3!) peer review requests in this morning's email, one that came in late last night, 2 early morning. Ummmm, this seems a bit much, just saying.

Sam the rural health advoCATe loves to see rural kittens becoming future rural health advocates! #PowerOfRuralCats

Interesting work shared by Sam the rural health advoCATe. Two of the factors associated with delayed care, uninsured status and distance to care, are common in rural. And it's always bad when a problem is worsening over time. #PowerOfRuralCats jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

this feels so familiar-it's almost painful: in addition to research...women of color often perform large amounts of...service that is not rewarded formally, but can negatively impact their evals if they say no....Men can...be bad departmental citizens as long as their research is valued-women can’t

Most systematic reviews and meta- analyses now include some assessment of study quality but these don't usually impact a review's conclusions. It's typically just some tick boxes or traffic lights and vague qualitative statements. We should instead filter out poor studies. What is wrong with us?

Noting that we live in a strange era, Sam the rural health advoCATe needs experts to comment. He wonders if “unnecessary services” could be defined to include childhood vaccines, leading pediatricians to be tossed from Medicaid. #PowerOfRuralCats www.beckershospitalreview.com/finance/cms-...

An interesting study -- and the authors make their county-level estimates available to other researchers, observes Sam the rural health advoCATe. However, counties/racial groups with fewer than 1K persons are not included, which limits rural analysis. #PowerOfRuralCats www.jacc.org/doi/10.1016/...

A familiar story, hisses Sam the rural health advoCATe. A funding system created without consideration for rural realities. #PowerOfRuralCats www.beckershospitalreview.com/finance/over...

New paper out today shows that ICE and National Guard presence in DC led to a pretty sizable drop in pediatric ER visits among Spanish-speaking and Hispanic patients. If sick kids can't go to the emergency room, immigration justice has to be a public health issue. jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

@helenbranswell.bsky.social was probably the only person on here who each year closely tracked/posted US pediatric flu deaths—always covering every change for past seasons, too. these threads never got much notice or attention, but she kept writing them because she believed they should be reported.

Sam the rural health advoCATe agrees with Dr. Zhand. And wishes we had an agreed upon metric to ensure subsidies cover the most needy areas. #PowerOfRuralCats

Sam the rural health advoCATe suggests that rural healthcare cats contribute to these listening sessions, as rural input is so rarely sought. Upcoming events on Nov 6-7. @nationalacademies.org #PowerOfRuralCats nap.nationalacademies.org/resource/oth...

The continued absence of CDC PRAMS team is keeping PRAMS, the only US long-term national maternal/infant health data set, offline for 18 months and counting. More details are in our new report: hsph.me/pramsreport @marchofdimes.org @commonwealthfund.org @datarescueproject.org @icpsr.bsky.social 2/2

We've been focused on the census lately, but that doesn't mean we have forgotten about other critical data. We applaud @ritahamad.bsky.social and colleagues at @harvard.edu for their new report: Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS) in Crisis popcenter.harvard.edu/blog/2026/10...

One of my biggest pet peeves in academia is when faculty don't recognize or value the expertise, skills, and institutional knowledge of academic staff.

Shared again by Sam the rural health advoCATe. A single-state study means a similar policy environment for all counties. #PowerOfRuralCats

Timeline cleanse.

Tenure-track position at the Assistant or Associate Professor level, Boise State University College of Education and Public Service.  www.higheredjobs.com/details.cfm?... #PAJobMarket

A wonderful few days at USD Law for the Law & Rurality Workshop! Grateful for thoughtful feedback on my rural legal deserts research, engaging conversations with colleagues, and some South Dakota history—from Spirit Mound to the George McGovern Museum. 🌾 @rural-reconcile.bsky.social

Happy noms. 😇 #Vaticats

Medical Care Research and Review is planning a new special issue on home-based care, edited by Rachel Werner and Tamara Konetzka. This is a great opportunity. A link to the call for papers is below. journals.sagepub.com/page/mcr/hom...

Don't harm opossums. They’re harmless and actually helpful. They keep pests under control by eating ticks, roaches, rats, and scorpions, clean up dead animals, and even help spread seeds. Basically, they’re nature’s cleanup crew. Original post

Sam the rural health advoCATe is too depressed to comment. #PowerOfRuralCats

We're hiring! We are looking for an Associate Data Analyst to join our IPUMS International team! We are looking for someone eager to develop technical skills in data processing and IPUMS data. Learn more and apply by Oct. 18, 2026. https://bit.ly/3WhA8p1

A state suing a major insurer over rural hospital closure (among other things). Interesting, muses Sam the rural health advoCATe. #PowerOfRuralCats www.beckershospitalreview.com/legal-regula...

Community health centers served 32.7 million patients in 2025, with 9 in 10 patients living in low-income households. Medicaid was the largest payer, covering nearly half of health center patients and accounting for 46% of total health center revenue. https://on.kff.org/3ZdWYfG

The GAO has confirmed that AHRQ funding was illegally withheld. $80 million in health services research authorized by Congress never reached researchers, disrupting studies focused on patient safety, access, quality, and affordability. Read our response: buff.ly/k5xJhBS

BTW this means no funding for GSS, ANES, or PSID. GSS 2026 is in the field now, but then it looks like that's it. Devastating for social science.

Why is labeling and defining missing data so crucial? And why is it important to understand whether the data is missing randomly or systematically? To answer these questions, watch our NoStupidQuestions series here: https://myumi.ch/ICPSRNoStupidQuestions #ICPSR #NoStupidQuestions #SocialScience

This article is sooo close to getting it. But concluding that cost sharing is essential ... yeah, punish the patient. Even tho other developed countries somehow manage without this. #PowerOfRuralCats jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...