Graduate Student conducting microbiology research on the human pathogen, Vibrio Vulnificus (Mike Teague)

When it comes to personal health, the state’s more affluent residents have an obvious advantage. Not only are they more healthy, but also most live in and around cities where increasing concentrations of health care resources are found. Poor inner city residents and those living in many rural areas have experienced real improvements in health care but it appears that the gap between the health of the affluent and the poor will continue to be a chronic problem.

This gap may widen in the future, especially in remote Mountain and eastern counties. It could be alleviated somewhat by the expansion of information technologies that will assist rural physicians and smaller hospitals in staying abreast of advancing knowledge, but the related development of expensive medical technologies will likely reinforce the concentration of more specialized treatment centers in urban centers and teaching hospitals associated with medical schools. As a result, North Carolinians will have access to increasingly more effective health care if they can afford it and can access the major treatment centers.

Health Chapter Index