Rural and Remote Health is an open-access international academic journal serving rural and remote communities and publishing articles by rural health practitioners, educators, researchers and policy makers.

The geographic maldistribution of physicians is a serious problem around the world. Evidence suggests that increasing the number of primary care specialists will help to improve the urban–rural gap in physician supply. This study compares the geographic distribution of family physicians in Japan and the USA – two developed countries without a major system for physician allocation by the public sector, but which differ greatly in the maturity of family medicine (ie length of its history as part of the healthcare system and the population of qualified family medicine experts).

This study contributes to understanding of the challenges experienced by rural healthcare providers in diagnosing and managing traumatic brain injury in their patients. Results from this qualitative study, involving 18 healthcare providers, point to several challenges and barriers to care as well as opportunities to overcome these challenges.

Community Health Workers (CHWs) are effective in sensitising people to diabetes mellitus (DM) and diabetic retinopathy (DR). In Fiji, CHWs attended a one-day DR awareness training course to provide communities with adequate basic knowledge about DM and DR to improve awareness and enhance referrals for DR screening and treatment. This study reports on the impact of this training on CHW knowledge of DR and referral practices in Fiji.

Despite the increased understanding of Canadian rural and remote nursing in the past two decades, no nursing frameworks to guide rural and remote practice have been in place. Working with the Canadian Association for Rural & Remote Nursing (CARRN), a process was planned to develop a rural and remote nursing framework. This Project Report describes the process, the framework developed, implications of the framework and lessons learned from the development process.

This article presents the results of research that utilised Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data to evaluate the prevalence of breast cancer and colorectal cancer screening by urban–rural locations. The authors present considerations for screening initiatives that can target rural regions and racial groups.