The quality and effectiveness of health care for rural residents will be studied by a local health research center with funding obtained from a federal contract.

Michigan Public Health Institute, a nonprofit firm based in Okemos, was given a two-year, $600,000 contract to perform a nationwide assessment of two rural health programs. The project will be managed by the Center for Collaborative Research in Health Outcomes and Policy. The final report will be presented before Congress for review.

"Rural health faces some problems that are unique to areas where there are not a lot of people," said center director Greg Cline, noting some of the frequent medical issues in rural areas are high travel costs for health-care providers and lack of insurance for patients.

Cline said the two programs being assessed were implemented to help provide networking for health-care services in rural areas. But until now, the accomplishments of these programs have not been evaluated.