The Office of Rural and Underserved Programs is committed to promoting medical education research and scholarship in rural and/or urban underserved settings and with students learning in and about those communities. The ORUP is excited to support students and faculty who are interested in doing research and scholarly activity about health in rural or urban underserved communities. If you would like support in designing and implementing a health-related research project or scholarly activity related to health in underserved communities, please reach out to Dr. Casapulla at casapull@ohio.edu .
ORUP Medical Education Research RFP
The Office of Rural and Underserved Programs awards funds to faculty, staff and medical students for medical education research projects each year.
Eligibility: Faculty and administrative staff as well as medical students and residents on all Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine campuses are eligible to submit proposals.
This fund is intended to support medical education research that is (1) a study of the education and training of medical students or residents or (2) a study led by a student or resident in the course of their medical education that focuses on the health of rural and/or underserved urban communities.
It is imperative that the applicant address this in the proposal.
Funding is intended to support new or in‐progress research and creative activities. Travel support for attendance at conferences, short courses and symposia or final project dissemination is allowed. Funding is not permitted for faculty salaries. Funding for student workers for data entry or other research support will be permitted at the discretion of the ORUP Research Fund Proposal Review Committee.
This application for funds is currently closed. We hope to reopen this opportunity early fall semester in 2025. Click here to sign up to receive our quartery newsletter with updates.
RUSP Research and Scholarly Activity
The RUSP research project is a scholarly, self-directed, educational opportunity for RUSP students who engage with faculty and/or peers to design and complete a project that addresses a question or issue that is meaningful to them. It must be related to rural, urban or global underserved populations. RUSP students can apply for funding from RUSP to support their research.
For more information and resources about doing research as a medical student, be sure to check out the Office of Research and Grants website.
International Research and Program Development
In the summer of 2019, Sharon Casapulla, Ed.D., M.P.H., led a team of researchers, including first-year medical students from the Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine and faculty from Pontifical University of Ecuador, in a health education intervention aimed at increasing knowledge and reducing stigma associated with HIV and AIDS. The study reached over 140 individuals in Cariamanga, Ecuador, a rural community in the southern part of the country. The intervention was unique in that it included two video narratives from women living with HIV/AIDS. We found a significant difference in knowledge and stigma between the two groups, indicating that the intervention was effective in increasing knowledge and reducing stigma. The intervention materials were provided to local community groups to extend the training to other individuals.
During the research project, participants in Ecuador listen to the narratives of individuals living with HIV.
Here is a presentation to the Ecuadorian Ministerio de Salud (November 2019) discussing a summary of the results of the study
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Listen to a recording of the presentation on this research for the Ministerio de Salad in Ecuador (available in Spanish and English).
Faculty Publications
Casapulla S, Kropf K, Kalout S*, Lingerak S*. (In Press). (2025). Building Community with Community: Reflections on the Rural and Urban Community Orienting Experience (RUCOE). Teaching and Learning in Medicine.
Casapulla S,Gómez-Urrego G, Madrid M, Iles C*, Keener C*, Viola J*, Sanchez A, Orquera C, Kingori C . (2022). Using narratives to reduce HIV stigma in rural Ecuador: A health education Intervention. Health Education Journal. https://doi.org/10.1177/00178969221090878
Chrisman-Khawam L, Snyder S, Tyler C, Harley D, Davidson E, Peters L, Anthes L, Casapulla S. (2024) The Transformative Care Continuum: Implementing an accelerated pathway that addresses the new roles of the family medicine physician. Medical Education Online. https://doi.org/10.1080/10872981.2024.2379629 .
Hanna O*, Vinyard C, Casapulla S. (2024). Concerns of osteopathic medical students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Osteopathic Medicine . https://doi.org/10.1515/jom-2023-0092
Vagedes R*, Franz B, Kerr A, Wymbs F, Smith C*, Rodgers A*, Nandyal S*, Strawhun D*, Kropf K, Casapulla S. (2024). A professional development workshop: Applying the Race and Culture Guide to reduce bias in medical teaching cases. Peer-Reviewed Reports in Medical Education Research (PRiMER) . https://doi.org/10.22454/PRiMER.2024.463730
Schmitz D, Casapulla S, Patterson D, Longenecker R. (2023). Building rural primary care research by connecting rural programs. Annals of Family Medicine. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1370/afm.2928
Casapulla S, Longenecker R. (2020). An integrated rural and urban underserved pathway in medical school. Teaching and Learning in Medicine. 35:2, 206-217, https://doi.org/10.1080/10401334.2022.2028262
Casapulla S, Rodriguez J*, Nandyal S.* (2020).Towards resilience: Medical students' perception of social support. Journal of American Osteopathic Association , 120, 844-854. https://doi.org/10.7556/jaoa.2020.158
Casapulla S. (2020). Asset-based and narrative-oriented medical education for rural and urban underserved practice. Health Communication , 36 (1):1-6. http://10.1080/10410236.2020.1712529
Paulus R*, Byler D*, Casapulla S. Student and preceptor experiences in a mini longitudinal integrated clerkship – a participatory self-study. Peer-Reviewed Reports in Medical Education Research (PRiMER), 4 (24). https://doi.org/10.22454/PRiMER.2020.439679
Manzi J*, Casapulla S, Kropf K, Baker B, Biechler M, Finch T*, Gerth A*, Randolph C.* (2019) Responding to Racism in the Clinical Setting: A novel use of Forum Theatre in social medicine education. Journal of Medical Humanities, 41, 489–500. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10912-020-09608-8
Kerr A, Shaub T, Casapulla S, Manzi J*, Smith C.* (2019). Addressing social justice and inclusion in the classroom: Using the principles of narrative medicine to discuss identity negotiation and passing. Communication Teacher, 34 (2), 97–102. https://doi.org/10.1080/17404622.2019.1625939