Rural health study is told it's losing federal funds, and other major heart studies are worried

Vasan Ramachandran is baffled. A cardiologist and veteran of the famed Framingham Heart Study, he is struggling to understand why a similar study he brought to life in 10 rural counties across four Southern states is facing elimination. The Rural Cohort Study, set in motion six years ago, was nearing its recruitment goal of 3,300 people, a sign that it was winning the trust of people in remote areas of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Kentucky.

Participants don’t walk into a brick-and-mortar building for this study. The research team travels to them, working in a mobile examination unit housed in a 50-foot trailer weighing about 50,000 metric tons and carrying a CT scanner plus a cardiac ultrasound machine that uses AI. “We take the science to the people,” he said. 

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