Practice-Based Research—“Blue Highways” on the NIH Roadmap
- John M. Westfall, MD, MPH;
- James Mold, MD, MPH;
- Lyle Fagnan, MD
- Author Affiliations: High Plains Research Network, Department of Family Medicine, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denver (Dr Westfall); Oklahoma Physicians Resource/Research Network, Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City (Dr Mold); and Department of Family Medicine, Oregon Rural Practice-Based Research Network, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland (Dr Fagnan).
- Corresponding Author: John M. Westfall, MD, MPH, Department of Family Medicine, University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center, PO Box 6508, Mail Stop F496, Denver, CO 80045 (jack.westfall{at}uchsc.edu).
Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text.
- KEYWORDS:
- COMMUNITY NETWORKS
- NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH (US)
- PHYSICIANS
- PRIMARY HEALTH CARE
- RESEARCH
On the old highway maps of America, the main routes were red and the back roads blue. Now even the colors are changing. But
in those brevities just before dawn and a little after dusk—times neither day nor night—the old roads return to the sky some
of its color. Then, in truth, they carry a mysterious cast of blue, and it's that time when the pull of the blue highway is
strongest, when the open road is a beckoning, a strangeness, a place where a man can lose himself.
William Least Heat-Moon, Blue Highways1
US Route 34 drops out of the Rockies like so many spring-fed creeks. Passing through the front-range sprawl of bedroom communities and suburbs, it narrows to 2 lanes and begins its trek across the Great Plains. In its heyday it was a bustling highway with countless travelers on their way to vacation in the cool …
