Health Innovation & Rural Engagement (HIRE) Initiative
HEALTH INNOVATION
& Rural Engagement
HIRE is a rural-first, statewide health innovation initiative Co-led by Carle College of Medicine and College of Applied Health Sciences.
What is HIRE?
The Health Innovation and Rural Engagement Hub (HIRE) is jointly led by the Carle Illinois College of Medicine and the College of Applied Health Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. HIRE brings together faculty, staff and students from across the University with collaborators from healthcare systems, community organizations, industry, philanthropy, and government to improve the health and vitality of rural communities across Illinois.
The Challenge:
Rural Illinois communities face some of the state’s most severe health disparities, workforce shortages, and barriers to care. At the same time, many underserved communities statewide experience similar challenges driven by limited access and insufficient prevention and chronic disease management tools.
The Solution: HIRE
HIRE is organized around three interconnected pillars. Together, these three pillars create an integrated platform for innovation, education, research, and community engagement that advances nutrition as a powerful strategy for improving cardiometabolic health while strengthening rural communities across Illinois.
1
ONE HEALTH
Applying a One Health approach to understand how human health is influenced by the broader exposome, including food systems, agriculture, the environment, lifestyle, and the social determinants of health. This pillar leverages advanced analytics and artificial intelligence to integrate data from across these domains, identify opportunities for action, and develop personalized nutrition interventions that improve cardiometabolic health and reduce chronic disease.
2
HEALTH WORKFORCE
Preparing the healthcare workforce of the future to deliver evidence-based nutrition and lifestyle interventions through innovative education, training, leadership development, and technology enabled learning. Using the University of Illinois Extension’s Find Food Illinois Navigator program, this pillar leverages immersive technologies such as augmented reality and virtual reality, and interdisciplinary educational programs to equip healthcare professionals, community health workers, and other practitioners with the knowledge and skills needed to improve nutrition and cardiometabolic health across diverse populations.
3
INNOVATION
Neighborhood Innovation Collaboratives for Ecosystem Excellence and Engagement (NICE3) - Partnering with communities to co-design, implement, and scale sustainable nutrition initiatives that improve access to healthy foods and promote healthier lifestyles. Beginning with a community collaboration with Iroquois County, this pillar addresses barriers to nutrition in rural communities through community-driven solutions, strengthening local food systems, expanding access to nutritious foods, and exploring community agriculture and locally grown nutritious crops, to improve long-term health and community well-being.
Why Carle Illinois College of Medicine
Carle Illinois College of Medicine (CI MED) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is the world’s first engineering-based medical school and is fundamentally different from every other medical school in Illinois. Through this innovation-driven approach, CI MED has developed scalable tools that improve health outcomes in underserved communities, positioning Illinois as a national leader in data-driven, equitable healthcare delivery.
WORLD'S FIRST
engineering-based medical school, unlike any other medical school in Illinois
NATIONAL LEADER
in AI-enabled medicine, analytics, and health innovation
PROVEN TRACK RECORD
of translating innovation into scalable care models
RICH HEALTH DATA RESOURCES
home to one of the world's largest de-identified health databases
STRONG EXTERNAL PARTNERSHIPS
with organizations including Google, AWS, and 360 Smarter Care, providing additional funding, technical expertise, and scaling capacity
Bottom Line
Our Commitment to Rural Health
HIRE delivers immediate improvements in rural health outcomes while creating long-term, statewide assets – data infrastructure, workforce capacity, and scalable digital health solutions – that strengthen healthcare access and equity across Illinois. It is a high-impact, fiscally responsible investment aligned with the goals of the federal Rural Health Transformation program.
Campus Partners
- Agricultural, Consumer & Environmental Sciences, College of (ACES)
- Gies College of Business
- Grainger College of Engineering, The
- Illinois Extension
- Liberal Arts & Sciences, College of
- NCSA | National Center for Supercomputing Applications
- School of Social Work
- Veterinary Medicine, College of