The long awaited Mobile Exam Unit of the Mississippi Core of the RURAL Health Study arrived in Batesville last week. Stationed in the parking lot behind Panola Med, the large mobile clinic will be the place where volunteers are given a battery of tests that will become data for the heart and lung study.

RURAL stands for Risk Underlying Rural Areas Longitudinal. The cohort study is aimed to address critical gaps in medical knowledge of heart and lung disorders in rural counties in the southeastern United States.

Panola and Oktibeha were the two counties chosen in Mississippi to be part of the study. Other studies have been completed in Kentucky and Alabama and the mobile exam unit will travel to Louisiana for the last stop of the study.

A ribbon cutting and MEU tour event took place on Thursday, Aug. 17, where participants listened to remarks by Batesville Mayor Hal Ferrell, Panola Med CEO Chris Ware, and Dr. Ervin Fox, the chief investigator for the study. 

Dr. Fox has attended functions and meetings in Panola County for three years in preparation of the local part of the study, and said last week the arrival of the exam unit marks a milestone in the study of heart and lung disease in our geographical area.