State Offices of Rural Health are increasingly challenged to deliver ever larger amounts of data and better data to substantiate the needs for resources to address rural health issues.  This Toolkit is designed is to provide State Offices of Rural Health with a tool for accessing and utilizing national, databases that are readily available, free, and have useful rural information for State Offices of Rural Health.

State Offices of Rural Health will potentially use this data to:

• support requests for resources (their own and others in their state)
• demonstrate the need for rural health programs and initiatives in their state
• confirm the need for establishing new policy or changing current policy to benefit rural health in their state

With funding from the National Organization of State Offices of Rural Health (NOSORH) this Toolkit was produced by the Arizona State Office of Rural Health (SORH) Program in the Rural Health Office, Mel & Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, University of Arizona, Tucson.  Other State Offices of Rural Health suggested resources and those in NOSORH Region D reviewed the Toolkit and provided feedback to make it more useful and useable.

Thank you for you interest in this Tool Kit. After you have had a chance to look around, please visit the User Survey. All responses will be kept confidential and will be used to further improve the information found here.

Go to Part Two: Introduction to Useful Databases and Websites