OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The University of Nebraska Medical Center will host a national conference in Omaha to explore the role of physician assistants in addressing the challenges of providing health care in rural areas.

The conference will be held Thursday and Friday at the Hilton Omaha Hotel.

In addition to UNMC, five regional physician assistant education programs are co-sponsoring the conference. They are: Des Moines University, Union College in Lincoln; University of Iowa, University of South Dakota and Wichita State University.

Among the topics to be covered will be the unique challenges of rural primary care, quality improvement strategies in rural health care delivery and building and sustaining rural primary care using physician assistants.

Physician assistants are licensed health professionals who provide medical care and can prescribe medication with supervision from a physician.