Volume nineteen, Issue 1

In Australia, around one in five medical specialist doctors travels away from their main practice to provide regular outreach services in rural communities. This study explored the use of video consultations by specialists providing rural outreach services.

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a major risk factor for ischaemic stroke and a common presentation in General Practice. This study determined whether patients in a rural population with documented history of AF are prescribed antithrombotic treatment according to recognised guidelines.

This study explores the influences on physical activity among Indigenous children in six rural First Nations communities in Canada. Using a socioecological approach, the authors identified three key impediments to physical activity - recreational technology, caregiver's safety concerns, and barriers to community activation.

For individuals living in rural/remote areas, there are recognised barriers limiting access to specialist services for persistent pain management. This study evaluated a persistent pain management program implemented via a multisite telehealth group model and examined consumer perceptions.

This project report examines the potential for tablet technology in the delivery of teleneurology consultations. Results of the study with 10 community-based hospitals demonstrate tablets as a cost-effective and efficient alternative to traditional telehealth technologies.

This cross-sectional study of 12 Rural Clinical Schools examined associations between extended rural clinical placement, rural background and location of practice. Findings suggest that students with extended rural clinical placement are more likely to practice in rural locations.

Different factors influence recruitment of health professional students to work in rural areas. This study explores the willingness of health students in the Faculty of Medicine Foca, University of East Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, to work in a rural area following graduation and the factors influencing their decision to pursue a rural career.

Healthcare systems in many countries struggle with recruiting general practitioners (GPs) for clinics in rural areas, leading to GPs being required to each serve an increasing number of patients and potentially influencing patient satisfaction and the likelihood of malpractice litigation. This study investigated the association between malpractice litigation and local setting characteristics in Denmark.

All healthcare providers can influence the delivery and outcome of a palliative approach to care, ensuring that everyone has “equitable access to quality care based on assessed need as they approach and reach the end-of-life”. This study mapped the delivery of palliative care in far west New South Wales, Australia.

As the population of Japan ages, care of elderly people is a critical issue for rural communities. Increased physician visits places an extra burden on primary care facilities. Recently, the number of prescriptions for compresses/patches (C/P; known as shippu in Japanese), used for pain relief for orthopedic diseases, has been uniformly restricted during physician visits in Japan. This study reports on the resultant change in the number of physician visits by patients seeking extra C/P prescriptions.

Preventing maternal deaths depends significantly on the presence of a skilled birth attendant at child delivery. This study determined whether use of mobile transport vouchers would result in an increased number of pregnant women in Samburu County, Kenya, choosing to deliver at a health facility rather than at home.

This study examined the factors affecting the intent to leave of healthcare workers serving in underserviced areas of Taiwan, including remote locations and isolated islands.

Local rural hospitals often do not have the resources or expertise to manage both maternal and neonatal outcomes in obstetric emergencies, but obstetric transfer can be stressful for the patient and costly for health services. This study describes the clinical reasons for obstetric transfers from a rural area in South Australia and explores predictive factors of likelihood of delivery on transfer.

Community paramedicine is emerging as a potential model to meet rural healthcare service gaps. This qualitative study explores motivators and challenges to participation, and the characteristics of paramedics engaged in this role in two North American programs.

The high incidence of skin cancer in Brazil has resulted in an urgent need for more efficient methods of reducing the time between initial diagnosis and therapy. Such delays are significant in large countries like Brazil, where a considerable proportion of the population live in remote areas with limited access to specialized medical care. This study tested the diagnostic efficiency of a mobile phone app as a screening device for suspicious skin lesions.