A healthcare initiative being undertaken by a pair of regional institutions has received a major boost, and will soon offer potentially life-saving services to people throughout the area. Congressman John Barrow (GA-12) announced Thursday that a rural healthcare project championed by Georgia Southern University and East Georgia Healthcare Center to combat diabetes will receive $150,000 in grant money from the Department of Health and Human Services to provide services in Bulloch and surrounding counties. The initiative, PROJECT ADEPT (Applied Diabetes Education Program using Tele-health), was awarded the monies — potentially $450,000 over three years — by the Rural Health Care Services Outreach Grant Program for a plan to treat a specific healthcare need for rural populations who sometimes haven’t access to proper treatment, said Bryant Smalley, Georgia Southern professor, and Co-Executive Director of the university’s Rural Health Research Institute.