UM, Providence announce partnership with goal of improving rural health care 

A new collaboration between the University of Montana and Providence health care system aims to improve care by combining the institutions’ researchers, data and clinicians to bring state-of-the-art treatment to rural communities, program leaders announced Wednesday. 

The “Resolve” collaborative expands on the existing partnership between UM and Providence — a Catholic nonprofit organization that has 51 hospitals and more than 1,000 clinics in seven states, including Montana — by giving university researchers access to Providence’s data to better inform ongoing rural health research, Matt Fete, the university’s dean of the College of Health, told Montana Free Press Wednesday. 

The program will also involve health care providers in rural areas across the state to better support them, Daniel Spoon, Providence Montana’s chief medical officer, told MTFP. 

“There’s an enormous amount of really good ideas and problem-solving that arise every day in how you’re practicing clinical medicine, but most people don’t have the machinery to turn that idea into an actual program or a process that will benefit the patient,” Spoon said. “By giving that outlet and connecting individuals in a very coordinated fashion, I think we’re gonna get some amazing ideas that we’re going to be able to implement pretty quickly.” 

The partnership is seeking $2.6 million in philanthropic support to get started, according to a press release from Providence. The collaborative will seek federal and state grants and rely in part on the University of Montana’s operating budget, Fete said. 

Reed Humphrey, head of UM Health and Medicine and former dean of the College of Health, said the university and Providence have partnered on research since the 1990s. The College of Health’s research capacity has grown almost tenfold in the last decade, increasing the need for research projects and data for faculty, post-doctoral fellows and graduate students, he said. 

The university’s total research expenditures have increased from $55 million in 2014 to $150 million in 2025, with health-related research making up about a quarter of that, said Scott Whittenburg, the university’s vice president for research and creative scholarship. The Resolve program will provide opportunities for researchers and students in various health-related education programs to do more clinical studies and learn to apply the tools they learned at UM in different settings, Whittenburg said. 

Bill Wright, Providence’s chief research officer, said that while Providence has a lot of data and conducts numerous clinical trials, these trials primarily focus on testing new treatments, and it’s not the clinicians’ job to analyze data for system-wide improvements. Combining Providence’s data with UM’s research capacity will create a “learning engine” to help figure out how to improve care for rural communities in a way tailored to their needs, he said. 

“When we try to bring new innovations into practice in health care, we can do it in partnership with our rural communities, caregivers and patients, and design those innovations so that they fit into what health care looks like in those communities,” Wright said. “Rather than kind of designing them off in a lab somewhere and then trying to roll them out and finding out that it doesn’t really fit right.” 

The collaborative is surveying rural hospitals, health care providers and professionals to determine their needs and learn their ideas for improving care. The results will be used to identify and develop projects. 

Humphrey, with UM Health and Medicine, said Resolve projects will engage caregivers “so they have an investment and they are actually part of the solution, not just the recipients of guidelines and strategies.” 

“University of Montana has always done a pretty good job at keeping our graduates in Montana and in the region,” he said. “We certainly expect this collaboration to help enhance that by having better connections with our caregivers in rural Montana communities.”