Missouri Southern State University (MSSU) has been providing educational opportunities to the region since its founding in 1937. In 2017, Kansas City University {KCU} of Medicine and Biosciences opened the first new medical school in Missouri in nearly 50 years in Joplin, the central hub of healthcare access in the Four-State region.

Founded in 2018, the MSSU-KCU Research Consortium (MKRC) has the express purpose of identifying new behavioral health treatment opportunities for our community. Hence, the long-term goal of the MKRC is to establish a new standard of care that uses an interdisciplinary team-based approach utilizing osteopathic principles and mind-body interventions as well as advance our knowledge in medical and denal health outcomes of specific communities to advance our medical knowledge in preventative care.

The specific mission of the MKRC is to provide interdisciplinary health care teams that engage the community with the specific goal of Improving the well-being of the people in our community.

As the anchoring location for the MSSU-KCU Research Consortium (MKRC), the Biomedical Research Laboratory (BMRL) supports basic and clinical research that investigates complimentary and integrative health care approaches.

By blending studies that use conventional biochemical, sociological, osteopathic and

mind-body intervention principles together in an interdisciplinary way, the MKRC is uniquely positioned to succeed in improving the well-being of the people in the Four­ State region.