Meeting the primary healthcare needs of small rural communities: lessons for health service planners

Deborah Russell

qualifications: PhD

contribution: devised survey tool, literature review, collected data, input data, statistical analysis, wrote the first draft

position: Research Fellow

Deb is a Research Fellow at the Monash University School of Rural Health, and with the Centre of Research Excellence in Rural and Remote Primary Health Care and the Centre of Research Excellence in Medical Workforce Dynamics. She has a PhD and Masters in Clinical Epidemiology. Deb has also worked as a rural GP. Deb's main research areas of interest relate to rural health workforce supply (especially retention) and rural primary health care services.

John Humphreys

qualifications: PhD

contribution: original concept, designed the project, devised survey tool, literature review, collected data, input data, statistical analysis, wrote the first draft

position: Emeritus Professor

Australia

Current research interests include:

• the social and spatial patterns of need for health related services in rural areas,
• rural health workforce recruitment and retention,
• the role and contribution of services to the health and wellbeing of communities,
• the provision of appropriate education, training and support for rural health workers and implementation of innovative service delivery models in order to provide sustainable health care in small rural and remote communities,
• the evaluation of rural health care planning and policies, and
• rural community development.