National experts on rural health care design and administration are coming to the University of Kansas next week to discuss ways to improve access to health care and boost small communities.

The KU Institute of Health + Wellness Design is hosting the Symposium on Challenges and Opportunities for Rural Healthcare on Nov. 5.

Author Brian Alexander, who currently is a regular contributor to The Atlantic and has written about health care and the decline of small-town America for many national publications, will deliver the keynote address at 11:30 a.m. in the Marvin Hall Forum on the KU campus. Alexander most recently authored “The Hospital: Life, Death, and Dollars in a Small American Town,” and “Glass House: The 1% Economy and the Shattering of the All-American Town.”

The symposium also will feature a panel discussion led by Tom Trenolone, director of design at Omaha, Neb.-based HDR Architecture, about how health care designers and communities can work together to shore up threatened rural communities.

The symposium is free and open to the public. It also will be live-streamed at http://www.kaltura.com/tiny/lrmya.