Volume four, Issue 4

What a year! RRH is growing exponentially, has MEDLINE recognition and a new home. This editorial bookmarks these achievements with the challenges that are still ahead.

Do you ever find yourself in the position of needing to refer a patient but there is no-one in your local area for you to refer them to? This article investigates this common dilemma for rural health professionals from the perspective of community-based nurses in rural Australia.

Violence against women by their husbands is a worldwide horror that unfortunately does not spare rural communities. This article provides confronting evidence from rural Indian villages of the extent of this reality.

We are all aware of the impact of good nutrition on health. But what if healthy food is not available, or is too expensive, in your rural community? This article provides evidence that can inform our responses.

Rural health workforce planning requires accurate data. This Australian study has attempted to provide just that in relation to undergraduate nursing students in rural and remote campuses. It seems so simple that you wonder why it wasn't done before!

Could a diet rich in fish oil protect indigenous people in rural communities from the complications of diabetes? This is one of the hypotheses that results from this simple study by rural doctors in Canada.

There are few comparision studies regarding training site location. The differences reported by medical students may be of great interest to medical educators who are considering a number of challenges, particularly how to maintain procedural intensity and training relevance.

Are your hospitals and specialist services overloaded? Perhaps your health insurance system is contributing to this problem. This study from rural Iran has lessons for us all.

The interplay between "traditional" and "modern" expectations in childbirth is complex. This study from rural Vietnam identifies some of the crucial issues that many rural regions need to face in this difficult area.

Rural communities have a different epidemiological profile from urban communities. This fact impacts the cost-effectiveness of public health strategies. This article clearly demonstrates this principle in relation to testing for strongyloides in rural indigenous communities in Australia.

Rural health professionals often have to find ways of bridging different cultural perspectives in order to improve health outcomes. This interesting article shows how sport was chosen as an effective link to enable treatment of chronic musculoskeletal pain in an Australian Indigenous community.

Does educating medical students in rural communities increase the number of junior doctors working in those same communities? This preliminary report provides further evidence that the answer is - yes!