Volume three, Issue 1

Journal Search brings Rural and Remote Health users a selection of relevant recent abstracts from MEDLINE. This month's themes are rural: occupational health, public health and toxicology.

Rural doctors throughout the world provide highly valued clinical supervision to medical students. But is the quality consistent, and can it be improved? Read this article to hear how a small medical school has addressed these issues by evaluating its placements (survey tool included), then understanding and addressing the educational needs of its rural teachers.

Do you sometimes find city dwellers minimising the problems faced by rural communities? Isn't life in rural areas meant to have some romantic 'natural' appeal? This article presents further confronting evidence of long-standing rural-urban health inequalities, in this case, maternal and infant health in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.

Do you live or work in an area where strongyloidiasis is hyperendemic? If so, this clear, concise and practical article is for you. If you are interested in how to prevent a seemingly shortlived infection from representing much later as a fatal disseminated sepsis, then read this article to see what action is being called for by the Indigenous communities in northern Australia.

Becoming a larger fish in a smaller pond is an analogy often used of rural living. However, not everyone living in a rural community is involved and active. This Australian research finds that those who are involved report better health as well. This has interesting public health policy ramifications. Think of how your friends and colleagues in your community would rate. Are there systemic barriers to participation in rural communities? How can we help those who are not involved? Read the article and see what conclusions you come to.

If you manage rural placements for health professional courses, I'm sure you have had difficulty getting the correct match between student and rural community. A poor match can result in a student who is less likely to see rural practice as a career option, and a rural community that is less likely to take future students. This article details the development of an innovative web-based tool that may help in this important work.

Are there practical and appropriate ways to identify and then treat the burden of chronic disease in remote indigenous communities. This research, using point-of-care pathology testing for renal disease suggests that the answer is YES!