A University of Kentucky researcher dedicated to improving health care access for rural communities was honored with a prestigious Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE).
The award, announced in mid-January by the White House, is the highest honor given by the U.S. government to outstanding, early career scientists and engineers.
Matthew Bush, M.D., Ph.D., the chair of UK HealthCare's Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery, was selected for the award for his research focused on improving access to hearing-related health care in rural communities. That work has been funded through the National Institutes of Deafness and Other Communication Disorders — which is part of the National Institutes of Health.
"My research has taken a community to make happen, and I've devoted myself and work to our community," said Bush, who also holds the UK College of Medicine's Chair in Rural Health Policy. "My long-term commitment is to care for the Commonwealth of Kentucky, and to make sure that Kentuckians have every opportunity to be healthy, to be employed, to be educated and to be to be well in every sense."
A native of Charleston, West Virginia, Bush said the realities of health care disparities have been clear in his community for his whole life. Since he came to UK in 2011, Bush said caring for patients from rural Kentucky has made an impact on him and his career path.
"They haven't had the same access and the same outcomes just because of the geography of where they live, not because of who they are," Bush said. "That has pushed me as a person, as a physician, as a researcher, as a father, as a community member, to do something about it."
Bush and many skilled collaborators have published research on how hearing affects one's life and how challenging it can be for individuals in rural communities to get access to timely, high-quality hearing care.
That work has shown that it often takes children from rural communities twice as long to get hearing aids or cochlear implants compared to their urban counterparts. Additionally, Bush's research has been able to demonstrate that community-based interventions, like local patient navigators, can help patients better traverse the complexities of the health care system.
The research is a "labor of love" that's been furthered by UK's nurturing scientific community. At UK specifically, Bush credited crucial mentorship and collaboration from Jennifer Shinn, Ph.D., UK's chief of Audiology, and Nancy Schoenberg, Ph.D., the Marion Pearsall Professor of Behavioral Science in the College of Medicine and associate vice president for research/research professional development.
"Any accolade should also be directed and devoted to our patients, who give us purpose and direction," Bush said. "This is for the Commonwealth of Kentucky."
