The Florida State University College of Medicine has been awarded $5.8 million from the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) to establish the Florida Rural Mobile to Home Care Network in Northwest Florida as part of the Rural Health Transformation Program's Preventive Care and Care at Home Bundle.

Dr. Joshua Hodge, associate professor in the Department of Family Medicine & Rural Health and program director of the FSU Family Medicine Residency at Ascension Sacred Heart Emerald Coast, will serve as co-principal investigator for the initiative.

The project will use mobile health as a central strategy to expand access to preventive care and care at home throughout rural communities. FSU will serve as the network's central backbone for governance, funding, data integration, and health information exchange and event notification services, while clinical care will be delivered through a network of rural and regional partners.

The collaborative network will bring together health care organizations, community-based clinical partners, emergency medical services, pharmacy-based clinics, remote patient monitoring, and data integration resources across Northwest Florida.

By connecting services that have traditionally operated independently, the initiative aims to improve access to care, strengthen continuity of care, and improve health outcomes while creating a scalable model for rural health transformation throughout Northwest Florida.

Congratulations to Dr. Hodge and the entire collaborative team on this significant investment in the health of Florida's rural communities!