INTRODUCTION Although rural medicine interest groups (RMIGs) are prevalent in Canadian medical schools, there is little research on their contribution to rural education, training and careers. METHODS We explored 2 broad questions by means of an electronic survey to people who were RMIG participants at McMaster University from 2002 to 2007: 1) What are the experiences of undergraduate trainee...

Background Good decision-making requires gathering and using sufficient information. Several knowledge translation platforms have been introduced in Burkina Faso to support evidence-informed decision-making. One of these is the rapid response service for health. This platform aims to provide quick access for policy-makers in Burkina Faso to highquality research evidence about health systems. Th...

INTRODUCTION Despite the acknowledged clinical importance of radiology and an awareness of issues surrounding the rural radiology workforce and access to services and equipment, there is a paucity of information assessing the adequacy of rural radiology services in Australia. Assessing the satisfaction of rural GPs with the radiology services available to them is one way of assessing the adequa...

BACKGROUND Service learning is endorsed by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) as an integral part of U.S. medical school curricula for future physicians. Service learning has been shown to help physicians in training rediscover the altruistic reasons for pursuing medicine and has the potential to enhance students' perspectives of humanism in medicine. The Kalaupapa service learni...

As the driving force behind the economic growth of China, Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) are shaping the ways for both public sector and private sector. Emerging economies like China are powering the growth in their regions. However, very little research was conducted on the ICT adoption and usage in the rural area, especially from the public sector. This research-in-progres...

BACKGROUND Many countries are developing health financing mechanisms to pursue the goal of universal coverage. In China, a rural health insurance system entitled New Cooperative Medical Scheme (NCMS) is being developed since 2003. Although there is concern about whether the NCMS will influence the serious situation of inequity in health service utilization in rural China, there is only limited ...