![Researchers are seeking to understand why people in the rural South tend to die earlier and have more health problems than people elsewhere.](https://makingofmedicine.virginia.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/GettyImages-South-351x244.jpg)
Seeking Solutions to the South’s Health Problems
Our Paul V. Targonski, MD, PhD, is helping to lead a massive, multi-state effort to determine why people born in the rural South tend to have more health problems and die earlier than people elsewhere. Importantly, he and his colleagues are looking not just for causes but solutions.