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Rural health services research

Guest Editors

Birgit Abelsen, PhD, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Norway
Selina Taylor, PhD, James Cook University, Australia


BMC Health Services Research called for submissions to our Collection on Rural health services research. This collection invited original research articles that advance our understanding of rural health services. Our goal was to foster collaboration and knowledge exchange among experts, researchers, and practitioners to drive meaningful improvements in rural healthcare outcomes and contribute to the overall well-being of rural communities. 

New Content ItemThis Collection supports and amplifies research related to SDG 3: Good Health & Well-Being.

Meet the Guest Editors

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Birgit Abelsen, PhD, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Norway

Dr Abelsen is Professor in Health Services research at Norwegian Centre for Rural Medicine at UiT The Arctic University of Norway. Her research is broadly oriented with a professional interest in the organization and financing of healthcare services, education, recruitment and retention of healthcare personnel, reforms in the healthcare system, teamwork and task division between different professions, as well as inequalities in health and healthcare access. Throughout her research career, Dr Abelsen had a particular interest in primary health care and aspects related to health services provision in rural areas.

Selina Taylor, PhD, James Cook University, Australia

Dr Taylor is currently the Pharmacy Academic at the Mount Isa Centre for Rural and Remote Health, having worked in various roles in pharmacy in her home community of Mount Isa. Dr Taylor's role at MICRRH is broad and focuses on improving the rural pharmacy workforce through facilitation of student placements, education for rural and remote pharmacists and multidisciplinary education and teaching sessions for students and health professionals. As a remotely located person Dr Taylor knows too well the challenges of distance and understands the importance of advocacy and promotion to raise the voice for those living and working in the bush. 


About the Collection

BMC Health Services Research is calling for submissions to our Collection on Rural health services research.

Rural health services research is a dynamic and multifaceted field that aims to investigate, understand, and improve healthcare access, delivery, and quality in rural areas. Rural healthcare systems face unique challenges e.g. workforce shortages, financial and infrastructure strain, complex patient populations, that require in-depth study and analysis to ensure equitable access to quality healthcare services for residents in these often underserved regions.

This collection invites original research articles that advance our understanding of rural health services. Our goal is to foster collaboration and knowledge exchange among experts, researchers, and practitioners to drive meaningful improvements in rural healthcare outcomes and contribute to the overall well-being of rural communities. Through evidence-based insights and informed discourse, we aim to support the development of effective strategies and interventions that bridge the healthcare gap between rural and urban areas.

Potential topics can include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Rural health disparities
  • Organization and quality of healthcare services in rural settings
  • Primary care in rural settings
  • Rural health promotion and disease prevention
  • Mental health in rural populations
  • Out-of-hours and acute medicine conditions and services in rural healthcare
  • Rural hospital management and sustainability
  • Telehealth and artificial intelligence in rural healthcare
  • Chronic disease management in rural healthcare settings
  • Health workforce recruitment and retention in rural areas
  • Rural health policy and governance
  • Digital health innovations implementation in rural areas
  • Rural cooperation and management of (complex) patients
  • Education of rural practitioners

This collection supports and amplifies research related to SDG 3 Good Health & Well-Being.

Image credit: zeljkosantrac / Getty Images / iStock

  1. Accessing sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services in rural Australia presents complex challenges that negatively impact women’s health and exacerbate health inequities across the life course. This system...

    Authors: Sarah M Wood, Laura Alston, Anna Chapman, Jacinta Lenehan and Vincent L Versace
    Citation: BMC Health Services Research 2024 24:1221
    Content type: Systematic Review Published on:

  2. The need for equitable access to primary healthcare services in the current global context has attracted widespread attention, prompting nations to continuously enhance their grassroots medical service levels....

    Authors: Lulu Liu, Yaowen Chen, Haiqing Xiang, Jiawei Zhong, Peng Zhou, Yu Xiao, Lan Wang and Ying Sun
    Citation: BMC Health Services Research 2024 24:1100
    Content type: Research Published on:

  3. Rural populations experience ongoing health inequities with disproportionately high morbidity and mortality rates, but digital health in rural settings is poorly studied. Our research question was: How does digit...

    Authors: Leanna Woods, Rebekah Eden, Sophie Macklin, Jenna Krivit, Rhona Duncan, Helen Murray, Raelene Donovan and Clair Sullivan
    Citation: BMC Health Services Research 2024 24:1096
    Content type: Research Published on:

  4. In Japan, local governments have rural clinics designated for areas without physicians (RCDA) to secure physicians for rural medical care. Moreover, a medical policy of dispatching physicians between the RCDA ...

    Authors: Hiroyuki Teraura, Kazuhiko Kotani and Soichi Koike
    Citation: BMC Health Services Research 2024 24:1049
    Content type: Research Published on:

  5. Tuberculosis (TB) preventive treatment (TPT) is a long-standing recommendation for children exposed to TB but remains poorly implemented. Home-based contact management may increase access and coverage of TPT a...

    Authors: Nicole Salazar-Austin, Alanna J. Bergman, Christiaan Mulder, Carrie Tudor, Fiseha Mulatu, Gidea Conradie, Richard E. Chaisson, Jonathan E. Golub, Gavin Churchyard, Ahmed Bedru and Deanna Kerrigan
    Citation: BMC Health Services Research 2024 24:1043
    Content type: Research Published on:

  6. Mobile Integrated Health-Community Paramedicine (MIH-CP) is a novel approach that may reduce the rural-urban disparity in vaccination uptake in the United States. MIH-CP providers, as physician extenders, offe...

    Authors: Monica L. Kasting, Alfu Laily, Sidney J. Smith, Sathveka Sembian, Katharine J. Head, Bukola Usidame, Gregory D. Zimet and Laura M. Schwab-Reese
    Citation: BMC Health Services Research 2024 24:1022
    Content type: Research Published on:

  7. Children’s physical inactivity is a persisting international public health concern. While there is a large body of literature examining physical activity interventions for children, the unique physical activit...

    Authors: Emma Ostermeier, Jason Gilliland, Jennifer D. Irwin, Jamie A. Seabrook and Patricia Tucker
    Citation: BMC Health Services Research 2024 24:1017
    Content type: Research Published on:

  8. Digital health offers unprecedented opportunities to enhance health service delivery across vast geographic regions. However, these benefits can only be realized with effective capabilities and clinical leader...

    Authors: Leanna Woods, Priya Martin, Johnson Khor, Lauren Guthrie and Clair Sullivan
    Citation: BMC Health Services Research 2024 24:1011
    Content type: Research Published on:

  9. Stroke is a leading cause of mortality and disability. In higher-income countries, mortality and disability have been reduced with advances in stroke care and early access to rehabilitation services. However, ...

    Authors: Angela Logan, Lorraine Faeldon, Bridie Kent, Aira Ong and Jonathan Marsden
    Citation: BMC Health Services Research 2024 24:1006
    Content type: Systematic Review Published on:

  10. Integration of maternal mental health into primary health care is considered a strategy to improve access to mental health support in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Health care workers’ (HCWs) and t...

    Authors: Chimwemwe Tembo, Linda Portsmouth and Sharyn Burns
    Citation: BMC Health Services Research 2024 24:983
    Content type: Research Published on:

  11. Healing Right Way (HRW) aimed to improve health outcomes for Aboriginal Australians with stroke or traumatic brain injury by facilitating system-level access to culturally secure rehabilitation services. Using...

    Authors: Judith M. Katzenellenbogen, Jane White, Melanie Robinson, Sandra C. Thompson, Amy Epstein, Mandy Stanley, Jane Klobas, Emma Haynes, Elizabeth A. Armstrong, Juli Coffin and Rachel Skoss
    Citation: BMC Health Services Research 2024 24:946
    Content type: Research Published on:

  12. Reducing childhood mortality by curtailing the incidence of vaccine preventable diseases is contingent upon a robust and high-performing routine immunization system. According to the available data, the full i...

    Authors: Manish Ratna, Sanjay Kumar Singh, Narendra Kumar Sinha, Mandar Kannure, Mehak Bhatia, Mahesh Kumar Aggarwal, Suresh Kumar Dalpath, Saurabh Sharma and Vama Shah
    Citation: BMC Health Services Research 2024 24:933
    Content type: Research Published on:

  13. Telecommunications offers an alternative or supplement to community-based interventions as a means of extending healthcare services and improving health outcomes in remote settings but can fail to reach target...

    Authors: Robert T. Jones, Freya I. Spencer, Laura A. Paris, Diarra Soumaïla, Nanthilde Kamara, Alexandra Hiscox and James G. Logan
    Citation: BMC Health Services Research 2024 24:905
    Content type: Research Published on:

  14. Many factors can decrease job productivity and cause physical and psychological complications for health care professionals providing maternal care. Information on challenges and coping strategies among health...

    Authors: Netsanet Demissie Milku, Diriba Wakjira Abose, Kelemu Abebe Gelaw, Taklu Marama Mokonnon and Makeda Sinaga Teshome
    Citation: BMC Health Services Research 2024 24:903
    Content type: Research Published on:

  15. Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death worldwide. Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) programs are recognized as effective in reducing the burden of cardiovascular disease. However, CR programs are offer...

    Authors: Jessica Bernier, Mylaine Breton and Marie-Eve Poitras
    Citation: BMC Health Services Research 2024 24:869
    Content type: Research Published on:

  16. Medical emergencies are the leading cause of high mortality and morbidity rates in rural areas of higher and lower-income countries than in urban areas. Medical emergency readiness is healthcare providers’ kno...

    Authors: Anju Sreeram, Ram Nair and Muhammad Aziz Rahman
    Citation: BMC Health Services Research 2024 24:843
    Content type: Systematic Review Published on:

  17. Access to mental and physical healthcare in rural areas is challenging for Veterans and their families but essential for good health. Even though recent research has revealed some of the challenges rural Veter...

    Authors: Maria Mercedes Rossi, Heidi L. Radunovich and Michelle A. Parisi
    Citation: BMC Health Services Research 2024 24:826
    Content type: Research Published on:

  18. Limited access to specialist medical services is a major barrier to healthcare in rural areas. We compared rural-urban specialist doctor consultations outside hospital by older adults (≥ 60 years) across South...

    Authors: Dennis Asante, Williams Agyemang-Duah, Paul Worley, Gloria Essilfie and Vivian Isaac
    Citation: BMC Health Services Research 2024 24:804
    Content type: Research Published on:

  19. As part of a larger study, and in collaboration with rural primary health care teams, RaDAR (Rural Dementia Action Research) primary care memory clinics have evolved and continue to spread in communities acros...

    Authors: Valerie Elliot, Julie Kosteniuk, Megan E. O’Connell, Chelsie Cameron and Debra Morgan
    Citation: BMC Health Services Research 2024 24:725
    Content type: Research Published on:

  20. Primary health care has a central role in dementia detection, diagnosis, and management, especially in low-resource rural areas. Care navigation is a strategy to improve integration and access to care, but lit...

    Authors: Debra G. Morgan, Julie Kosteniuk and Melanie Bayly
    Citation: BMC Health Services Research 2024 24:607
    Content type: Research Published on:

  21. In middle-income countries, poor physician-patient communication remains a recognized barrier to enhancing healthcare quality and patient satisfaction. This study investigates the influence of provider-patient...

    Authors: Qiufeng Gao, Bin Zhang, Qian Zhou, Cuiyao Lei, Xiaofei Wei and Yaojiang Shi
    Citation: BMC Health Services Research 2024 24:579
    Content type: Research Published on:

  22. Rural populations consistently experience a disproportionate burden of cancer, including higher incidence and mortality rates, compared to the urban populations. Factors that are thought to contribute to these...

    Authors: Shin Chang, Michelle Liu, Christa Braun-Inglis, Randall Holcombe and Izumi Okado
    Citation: BMC Health Services Research 2024 24:518
    Content type: Research Published on:

  23. The COVID-19 pandemic had a major impact on healthcare services globally. In care settings such as small rural nursing homes and homes care services leaders were forced to confront, and adapt to, both new and ...

    Authors: Malin Knutsen Glette, Tone Kringeland, Lipika Samal, David W. Bates and Siri Wiig
    Citation: BMC Health Services Research 2024 24:442
    Content type: Research Published on:

Submission Guidelines

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This Collection welcomes submission of original Research Articles. Should you wish to submit a different article type, please read our submission guidelines  to confirm that type is accepted by the journal. Articles for this Collection should be submitted via our submission system, Snapp. During the submission process you will be asked whether you are submitting to a Collection, please select "Rural health services research" from the dropdown menu.

Articles will undergo the journal’s standard peer-review process and are subject to all of the journal’s standard policies. Articles will be added to the Collection as they are published.

The Editors have no competing interests with the submissions which they handle through the peer review process. The peer review of any submissions for which the Editors have competing interests is handled by another Editorial Board Member who has no competing interests.