The inclusion of a public health insurance plan in health care reform legislation as an option for individuals, families and businesses promises to be one of the most controversial and crucial decisions made by Congress. With the myriad health care challenges facing rural people and rural communities, the decision on whether to include a public health insurance plan option has significant poten...

This paper explores two mental health systems in rural North Carolina that provide services to people with severe mental disorders. Recent findings show rural people with mental disorders receive less mental health care than their urban counterparts. This study asks whether rural service systems differ from urban systems in the way that their services are coordinated and structured. A popular c...

BACKGROUND The population of Ghana is increasingly becoming urbanized with about 70% of the estimated 27 million people living in urban and peri-urban areas. Nonetheless, eight out of the ten regions in Ghana remain predominantly rural where only 32% of the national health sector workforce works. Moreover, the rural-urban disparities in the density of health tutors (staff responsible for pre-se...

BACKGROUND Despite an increased need, residents of rural communities have decreased access to healthcare and oftenpresentuniquehealthcare challenges associated with their rurality. Ensuring medical students receive adequate exposure to these issues is complicated by the urban location of most medical schools. Health fairs (fairs) conducted in rural communities can provide students exposure to r...

Health researchers have paid scant attention towards the health of rural areas. Most of the times, changing lifestyles and the altering environments of a rural setting may modify the health scenario of the rural inhabitants. In the present study we investigate the influence of living in a rural area as described by rural from different parts of the Northern Province of central India. Our analys...

OBJECTIVE NSW has just experienced its worst drought in a century. As years passed with insufficient rain, drought-related mental health problems became evident on farms. Our objective is to describe how, in response, the Rural Adversity Mental Health Program was introduced in 2007 to raise awareness of drought-related mental health needs and help address these needs in rural and remote NSW. Th...

Transkei is becoming headline news. Until recently this corner of South Africa was known in Britain only to a few tourists for its rolling hills dotted with huts; its "red blanket" tribespeople; and its click-language-recently heard over here in the African musical Ipi Tombi. On 26 October it became the Republic of Transkei-the first "independent African homeland" of South Africa. Like any deve...

In 2008, the American Academy of Dermatology began sponsoring North American dermatology residents to travel to Botswana in sub-Saharan Africa and spend 4 to 6 weeks working with the Botswana-UPenn Partnership, the Baylor International Pediatrics AIDS Initiative, Princess Marina Hospital, and surrounding smaller district hospitals. During their time in Botswana, the residents staff the busy out...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Telestroke reduces acute stroke care disparities between urban stroke centers and rural hospitals. Current technologies used to conduct remote patient assessments have high start-up costs, yet they cannot consistently establish quality timely connections. Smartphones can be used for high-quality video teleconferencing. They are inexpensive and ubiquitous among health care...