Volume twelve, Issue 1

Web access and high quality telecommunications are crucial elements underpinning health, economic development and social cohesion in rural and remote communities. Is the NBN the knight in shining armour or is some of the armour rusting and constrictive? Former Minister for Health in the Northern Territory, Peter Toyne, provides an important perspective in this Editorial on this crucial time in Australia's history.

What is needed to improve child survival in rural Kenya? This study used Kenya Demographic and Health Survey mortality rates for under-fives to identify key risk factors impacting on child survival rates.

Rural residents often miss out on cardiac rehabilitation programs. This pilot program report demonstrates that it is possible to conduct such a program in a rural area by accessing local social capital - and that the results may extend well beyond the benefits to participants.

Decreased physical activity is a common concern about youth, regardless of urban or rural context. This study used photovoice to generate information about rural youth activity; find out what the study revealed while learning about an innovative research method.

There is an expanded understanding of health status variation between urban and rural areas. This article adds to this by discussing heterogenity in health between and within several categories of rural areas.

This study from one faculty of dentistry in South Africa determined factors likely to inhibit rural students' enrolment and eventual graduation. While only a small study, it is one of only a few that report on dental students in Africa. It will make interesting reading for those concerned with rural health workforce shortages in resource-low locations.

Recruitment still reigns as a major factor in practice location choice, but physicians at different stages of a career do have different motivations including work/life balance, medical need, and family. The findings of this interesting study suggest that more research is needed that considers differing generations of physicians and different types of specialties.

The chronic disease burden associated with overweight and obesity among Aboriginal Australians calls for early intervention. However, does routine data on BMI-for-age provide adequate estimation of future risk among the children in these communities?

In an unusual approach, this research combined scientific method with traditional environmental knowledge to inquire into climate change and food security for Aboriginal Peoples in northern Ontario, Canada. The researchers focus on the extreme climatic events of one summer and subsequent distribution of subsistence fish species.

International medical graduates (IMGs) make a substantial contribution to Australia's rural medical workforce, despite the multiple challenges faced in their new professional and cultural environment. This evaluation of the innovative Victorian GIPSIE (Gippsland Inspiring Professional Standards among International Experts) program shows that much can be done to support and assist the adjustment and continuing development of IMGs who commit to working in rural health services.

In this report of an Australian multi-university study, the authors describe a "winning combination" of factors as the most significant predictor of a medical undergrad's rural practice intention.

The participants' quotes eloquently describe the experience of being 'sent into exile' when older rural Australians are unable to access residential care in their home communities. Their voices define a major theme from a larger study.

Fee for service has been unable to keep up with the rapidly rising costs of delivering primary care in the United States. Rural Health Clinics have grown rapidly over recent decades, in no small part because the funding is based on 'reasonable and allowable costs'. Studies such as this are greatly needed to examine performance areas such as the efficiency and effectiveness of Rural Health Clinics.

Is the decade-plus Australian Rural Clinical Schools (RCS) initiative addressing the rural medical workforce shortage? One RCS has monitored its impact on graduates for as long as 9 years. Its latest survey concerns career location and speciality choice, as well offering a perspective on the reality of career choices and life decisions as a graduate in the medical workforce.

Smoke-free laws and graphic warning labels are public health measures, but laws may not be effective if populations do not agree. How do rural Appalachian populations feel about such measures?

Technology can be an asset for care provision in rural and remote locations, however there are some disadvantages. This qualitative study of stroke survivors generated useful information for making videoconferencing work for other remote individuals in group-based programs.

Are medical students' career choices influenced by their preceptors? And what role, if any, does the duration of rural placement play in students selecting a primary care career? This comprehensive review of the literature has the answers, in what should be essential reading for medical curriculum designers and policy-makers.

This reflective piece from a psychologist working with Canadian Aboriginal peoples integrates the personal with the professional. However, her recommendations and lessons learned will be useful to other health professionals who work with Indigenous peoples in other geographic regions.

In India, as in many countries and all world regions, rural health services are disadvantaged by a shortage of graduate health staff. This small study into the rural health attitudes and work intentions of Indian medical students begins to build the evidence required for change.

Immigrant and refugee groups in rural communities and smaller cities do not always have easy access to health resources. This US article discusses the use of unique 'health advisors' (a role distinct from medical interpreters), to assist this population gain access to comprehensive and culturally safe prenatal and pediatric care.

The Ateneo de Zamboanga University School of Medicine experience in the Philippines suggests a cost-effective model of producing rural doctors to work in under-served rural communities. This is the first in-depth report from the innovative and socially accountable medical school located in one of the most difficult places in the world for physicians to work.

In Central Appalachia where there are few roads and fewer providing health care services, but the Health Wagon has delivered most needed care since 1980. Those desiring to understand rural barriers to care can best learn by locally solving health access woes.

This letter from Lesotho proposes a scheme to enable universal health coverage in Sub-Saharan Africa, which would be of particular benefit to underserved rural and remote populations.