Selected Topics - Rural Health

• Rural Health Unit, Faculty of Medicine, UNSW
  The Rural Health Unit at UNSW is responsible for administering special entry schemes and initiatives to promote rural health as a viable alternative to urban-based medical practice
• Rural Clinical School, Faculty of Medicine, UNSW
  "The University of New South Wales (UNSW) Rural Clinical School is fully committed to leading the rural education of medical students in Australia. Funded by the Federal Department of Health and Ageing, the School was established in January 2000 in the Greater Murray Region of New South Wales (Greater Murray Clinical School). In February 2001 additional funding by the Federal Government established a Mid North Coast division of the School."

Events

• School of Public Health and Community Medicine, UNSW - Upcoming Events

Global policies and related documents

Reports, guidelines and projects

• Canada's Rural Communities: Understanding Rurual Health and its Determinants
  The report focuses on the analyses of several pan-Canadian data sources in order to examine whether there are differences in health between rural and urban Canadians. The overarching objective of the report is to create a broader understanding of rural health needs and to inform and support policy and program development. This report is a collaborative effort of the Canadian Population Health Initiative (CPHI) at the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI), the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) and the Centre for Rural and Northern Health Research (CRaNHR) at Laurentian University.
• Interdisciplinary Training for Health Care for Rural Areas Project
  The mission of this project is to increase the capacity of the U.S. State of Maine to improve access, quality and delivery of rural health care through multi-level, innovative, inter-disciplinary team and health informatics, education and training activity. Its underlying philosophical premise being that interdisciplinary training is not only desirable but essential to rural health care practice.
• Health Care Delivery: Rural vs. Urban Communities, American Medical Students Society
  This article, which is published by the American Medical Students Society analyses the differences between health care delivery in rural and urban communities.

Educational resources

• Pocket book of hospital care for children: Guidelines for the management of common illnesses with limited resources
  This Pocket Book presents up-to-date clinical guidelines which are based on a review of the available published evidence by subject experts, for both inpatient and outpatient care in small hospitals where basic laboratory facilities and essential drugs and inexpensive medicines are available. It focuses on the inpatient management of the major causes of childhood mortality, such as pneumonia, diarrhoea, severe malnutrition, malaria, meningitis, measles, HIV infection and related conditions. It covers neonatal problems and surgical conditions of children which can be managed in small hospitals
• Rural Health Web Ring
  The Rural Health WebRing is a collection of sites from all around the world that focus on rural health issues. Sites include health agencies, government departments, educational and professional organisations

Organisations and Networks

UN and multinational

Government

• Public Health Agency of Canada: Rural Health
  The Canadian Government's Office of Rural Health provides policy advice on rural health issues; identifies rural health issues in relation to broad federal, departmental and regional priorities; fosters understanding about rural health issues of national concern and builds consensus on how to address them; identifies emerging trends; works with others to promote, encourage or influence action on rural health issues; and promotes the involvement of rural citizens, communities and health care providers
• Rural Assistance Center
  A product of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Rural Initiative, the Rural Assistance Center (RAC) was established in December 2002 as a rural health and human services "information portal." RAC helps rural communities and other rural stakeholders access the full range of available programs, funding, and research that can enable them to provide quality health and human services to rural residents.

Non Government

• Center for Rural Health and Social Service Development (SRHSSD)
  The CRHSSD at Southern Ilinois University Carbondale conducts research, needs assessments, demonstration projects, program evaluations and trainings, tests new models of health care delivery and develops policy recommendations to improve the health of rural communities.
• Center for Rural Health Policy Analysis (USA)
  This Institute at the University of Nebraska Medical Center focuses on rural health care financing/system reform, rural systems building, and meeting the health care needs of special rural populations. Specific objectives include: conducting original research and independent policy analysis that provides policy makers and others with a more complete understanding of the implications of health policy initiatives, and disseminating policy analysis that assures policy makers will consider the needs of rural health care delivery systems in the design and implementation of health policy.
• Institute of Rural Health (UK)
  The Institute of Rural Health works with individuals and communities, academic bodies and organisations involved in service delivery. The IRH aims to promote health and well being across rural Britain and to ensure that rural communities receive the highest quality health care possible.
• International Association of Agricultural Medicine and Rural Health
  The IAAMEH is an independent association for agricultural and rural health professionals. The organisation collaborates with other-health and medical, as well as, scientific associations and their representatives in areas such as agriculture, food industry, ecology, environment protection, pedagogy, economy, etc. It also maintains elective collaboration with governments, governmental organisations, professional associations and other groups or individuals interested in the field of agriculture of rural health.
• National Rural Health Alliance (Australia)
  The National Rural Health Alliance is the the peak australian national body working to improve the health of those living in rural and remote areas. The NRHA is comprised of nineteen Member Bodies, each of which is a national organisation in its own right. The nineteen represent both the consumers of health services and the health professionals providing service to non-metropolitan areas.
• National Rural Health Association (USA)
  The National Rural Health Association, a member association of more than 9,000, is a major voice of rural health in America. It promotes leadership, communication, education, research, and advocacy. The NRHA also serves as a resource to keep members apprised of and involved in changing rural events, and as an advocacy trainer and partner to influence change that keeps rural communities healthy and viable.
• Rural Health Resource Center (USA)
  The Rural Health Resource Center is a non-profit organisation based in Duluth, Minnesota USA. The Rural Health Resource Center provides technical assistance, information, tools and resources for the improvement of rural healthcare. It serves as a national rural health knowledge center and strives to build state and local capacity.
• Resource Center for Rural Behavioral Health (USA)
  The objective of the APA Rural Health Initiative of the American Psychological Association is to ensure that the behavioral healthcare needs of rural and frontier Americans are met.
• Rural Health Education Foundation (Australia)
  The Rural Health Education Foundation provides independent, accredited education services to general practitioners and other health professionals working in rural and remote Australia.
• Rural Health Education Network of Delaware, Otsego, Montgomery, and Schoharie Counties (USA)
  RHENDOMS aims to strengthen health education to the community through integration and coordination of programs offered by Network members by formulating and executing locally appropriate plans to meet needs and to monitor the effectiveness of the program.
• Rural Sociological Society (USA)
  The Rural Sociological Society is a professional social science association that promotes the generation, application and dissemination of sociological knowledge. The Society seeks to enhance the quality of rural life, communities and the environment.
• Services for Australian Rural and Remote Allied Health
  Services for Australian Rural and Remote Allied Health (SARRAH) is nationally recognised as a peak body representing rural and remote Allied Health Professionals. SARRAH is a 'grassroots' organisation whose membership consists of individual Allied Health Professionals across rural and remote Australia.

Academic Institutions with particular focus in this area

• Center for International and Rural Health, University of Iowa (USA)
  CIREH encourages interdisciplinary research into the causes, consequences and prevention of communicable, chronic, environmental and occupational diseases in countries with substantial agrarian economies.
• Agricultural Safety and Health Program
  The Agricultural Safety and Health Program at the University of Minnesota provides educational programs and resources designed to assist agricultural communities throughout the world to ensure the health and safety of its workers. It also conducts research to improve farm safety and provides access to regulations governing employment in the rural sector.
• Rural Health Research at the University of British Columbia (Canada)
  The British Columbia Rural and Remote Health Research Institute (BCRRHRI) was founded in 2000 to work towards improving the health of people in rural, remote and northern populations in Canada.
• School of Public Health and Community Medicine, UNSW
• School of Public Health and Community Medicine, UNSW - Research
• University of Tasmania, Department of Rural Health (Australia)
  The University Department of Rural Health (UDRH) program is an Australian Government initiative based in Launceston, in Northern Tasmania. It is part of the Faculty of Health Science of the University of Tasmania. The UDRH has a strong presence in rural and remote locations around Tasmania, including a network of ten Rural Health Teaching Sites in rural Tasmania and on the Bass Strait Islands. Research and evaluation staff are principally based

Key Conferences, conference and workshop reports

Coming conferences

Conference reports

Journals, Newsletters, Forums

Bibliographies, Libraries

Public health bookshops

• Public Health bookshop