The Virginia Rural Health Association (VRHA) is a nonprofit organization working for the 2.5 million people who call rural Virginia their home.
Our mission is to improve the health of rural Virginians through education, advocacy, and fostering cooperative partnerships. Learn More
*2026 Legislative Alerts – Click Here to view bills which may have an impact on rural health in Virginia.*
You’re invited to join our free, one-hour webinar to learn about the ABCs of rural wound care success – advanced care, billing and community buy-in – and see what’s possible when clinical precision, financial insight and education come together to reshape rural wound care.
Join RestorixHealth’s Nathan Shivers, Will Evans, RN, and Diane Weiss, RCMS, CPC, CPB, CHRI, to explore community awareness and staff engagement techniques, understand wound-specific billing and documentation and, ultimately, bring your hospital’s wound care services to the next level.
Mark your calendars for the fourth annual Rural Education Summit on Wednesday, March 25, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. This year’s theme is Postsecondary Opportunities for Rural Youth and will include sessions, a keynote, lunch, an auction, and more!
Session topics will include:
Registration is free, but required.
The summit will be followed by our fourth annual Rural Film Festival at the Lyric Theatre from 7-9 p.m.
SWVA SPRING PEER RECOVERY SUMMIT
April 8, 2026
8:30 am – 4:00 pm
SWVA Higher Education Center
One Partnership Circle, Abingdon, VA
$25.00 Registration Fee
Meals Included
Speakers:
Dr Arthur Ollendorff, M.D. – Supporting Recovery Across the Perinatal Continuum
Meagan Helmick, PhD – Recovery in Motion: The Role of Peer Support on Community Mobile Units
Michelle Ousley, PRS – Lived Experience to Licensed Purpose
Jessica Fine, PRS – Rock Bottom was My Beginning
Audria Reece, PRS – From Prison to Peer: Turning Lived Experience into Purpose
Critical Access Hospital Summit
June 2, 2026
Blackburn Inn – Staunton, VA
$25.00 Registration Fee
*Free lodging for Virginia CAH Staff – Room requests must be made by May 8, 2026*
SPEAKERS
2026 Rural Health Summit
June 3-4, 2026
Blackburn Inn, Staunton, VA
Registration Fee:
$25.00 VRHA Members/$50.00 Non-Members
Free Lodging for Virginia RHC Staff!
*Request for complimentary hotel room MUST be made by May 8, 2026*
Speakers:
| Please mark your calendar for the 2026 MATRC Summit: Accelerating Innovation Through Collaboration—Building the Future of Connected Care, taking place Monday, August 10 through Wednesday, August 12, 2026, at the Crowne Plaza Dulles Airport in Herndon, Virginia, just outside Washington, DC. |
| For more than 13 years, the Mid-Atlantic Telehealth Resource Center Telehealth Summit has served as a cornerstone for telehealth innovation—helping shape policy, advance best practices, and build meaningful connections across our region. |
| As we enter our 14th year, the focus shifts from laying the foundation to elevating the structure—bringing together people, technology, and ideas to accelerate the next era of connected care. This year’s Summit is designed to be more than a place to learn; it is a place to connect, collaborate, and create. Additional details will be shared in the coming months. |
| Look out for registration opening Spring 2026. |
Save the date! Registration will open in the coming weeks.
The Syndemic Summit brings together public health leaders, policymakers, clinicians, advocates, and community organizers from across Appalachia and rural America for a powerful, solutions-driven gathering focused on the intersecting challenges of HIV, hepatitis, and overdose prevention.
Free event for primary care/hospitalist physicians, nurse practitioners, and medical residents working in Southwest Virginia’s 13 counties.
More Information Coming Soon!
The Rural Health Voice Conference is an occasion to recognize that health in rural areas is not the sole responsibility of doctors and nurses. Education, economic development, transportation, the built environment, and even social opportunities play a role in the health of individuals and communities. All aspects of the community are providers or barriers to health.
For over twenty years, the Virginia Rural Health Association has served as “The Voice for Rural Health in Virginia.” Rural Health is DIFFERENT. Rural Americans face a unique combination of factors that create disparities in health care not found in urban areas. Economic factors, cultural and social differences, educational differences, lack of recognition by legislators and the isolation of living in remote rural areas all conspire to impede rural Americans in their struggle to lead a normal, healthy life.
At this event, we focus on finding solutions within our communities. We know what the problems are – how do we work together to solve them?
Bringing the people who care about rural Virginia together provides an opportunity to discuss how we can ensure the sustainability of rural Virginia through policy, access, economics, education and more.
