Volume five, Issue 2

Read Issue 2 Editorial: 'Rural and remote communities ­ innovation in the midst of adversity' by Paul S Worley, Editor-in-Chief

This article offers a primer on how to get started in videoconferencing, focusing on practical approaches to technical and protocol issues.

When specialist medical care is scarce, this Letter to the Editor describes a possible solution.

The US Rural Physician Associate Program (RPAP) has trained 1063 medical students in rural communities for the past 34 years and produced 658 primary care physicians and 521 physicians who currently practice in rural communities. Read more about this sucessful program in this Personal View.

The results of this study suggest that an opportunity to acculturate students into the rural lifestyle is lost when students' placements are insufficiently long for them to put down roots. Does this echo your experience?

This study from the island of Crete describes an innovative approach to encouraging cervical screening among traditional women. Could it be adapted to your community?

Is there a place for specific research training for effective research in rural and remote locations? Read this article and see if you agree with the authors.

Telehealth is being considered as a solution for overcoming the barrier of isolation in rural health. But is it always the best solution? This personal view gives a perspective from rural India.

Would you like to be part of a Journal Club but there is no-one close enough to join in? This article gives encouragement for how technology can assist in overcoming such barriers.

In this article Iain Mungall studies the centralisation and specialisation of hospital services and explores their impact on the quality of care offered to rural and remote communities. This article introduces several views and an interesting debate on how the health services will keep the balance between living in rural/remote and urban areas. It also makes several recommendations on how the professions have to respond to the new challenges set by the NHS.

Are you involved in rural health education? Do you worry whether your students are covering the whole curriculum? This article presents an interesting way to track and stimulate student learning in a rural location.

The authors from the Institute of Rural Health introduce the concept of Rural Proofing for Health, a new approach or systematic methodology, which explores to what extent rural sensitivity is embedded into policy making. They provide some key information about how it can be assessed. Health policy-makers will find this article interesting, when they are considering the needs of people living in rural and remote communities.

This Letter "The positive impact of rural medical schools on rural intern choices" offers interesting evidence from South Africa.

Do you need to track and report on student placements in your rural region? See what you think of this web-based solution from South Australia.

The oral health of the Indigenous community in South Australia's mid-north has been a concern for some years. This project report describes the setting up of a culturally sensitive, quality dental service within an already operating the Aboriginal Health Service.

Rural nursing presents significant challenges. This exploratory study highlights some of these challenges and presents opportunities for others hoping to improve the supply of rural nurses. It is a useful discussion piece for those currently in training. Similar issues involve a wide range of health professionals in rural areas.

Adolescence is a special time of opportunity for impact regarding education, careers, and personal health. Often there are few points of contact between adolescents and those who could help them with life-changing decisions, particularly in rural communities. The solution to better information and better outcomes may be the adolescents themselves. Participatory methods can be valuable in bringing teens and those who hope to improve health outcomes together for best long term results.