Gateway Rural Health Research Institute Newsletter Vol 1 No 1

This is the first draft of an edition for physicians of what we plan to be a useful and informative bulletin of medical issues affecting rural populations.

Studies in issues affecting rural populations are meagre and difficult to find. But the incidences of specific medical conditions in rural populations are higher or much higher than those occurring in urban populations. We do not know why.

Gateway’s goal is to be of use to the medical and healthcare community in the treatment of rural issues and to make a difference in the delivery of medical service of all kinds to rural populations. Difficult? No, not with the will to share information, collect data and demonstrate the problems that are not now gaining any interest in medical research communities. We mean to share information in order to collaborate in more broadly based studies by creating a rural base of testing and study in southwestern Ontario. Our agency will help to train local health professionals and assistants to attain certification as qualified investigators. We are focused on community-driven research – research for, and involving, the rural population under study. We will initiate our own research to define the epidemiology and find relevant factors associated with high prevalence of cardio and pulmonary problems, obesity, diabetes, atherosclerosis and depression in rural populations.

We will operate under the supervision and involvement of a noted researcher, Dr Claudio Munoz, also associated with the SPARC Institute.

To assist in doing all this, we will keep the physician base informed and involved through these bulletins.

We seek you assistance and help in making this endeavour useful and productive.

In return, we offer opportunities rarely available to rural physicians – the opportunity to be directly involved in research studies in issues you define as important and worthy of investigation, the opportunity to conduct research in whole or in part to be shared with your peers across a broad spectrum of medicine – with a rural focus. The opportunity to share and publish information only you - as rural physicians - have access to in your practices.

Depression raises risk of more cardiac events within weeks of MI….Medical Post …Aug 5,2008…p5…..

Boston: A small, novel study of cardiac patients reported that the risk of further cardiac events is higher for patients with pre-existing major depression. (editor note: In Canada, depression in women is 50% more prevalent than in men and 50% more in women in rural areas than in urban.) It is clear that there is some sort of spectrum of risk from the day after their attack and the years beyond. The article states ‘This is really a cohort that requires aggressive monitioring and treatment.’

ICES Report: the impact of not having a primary care physician among people with chronic conditions…Ontario Medical Review… July/August 2008, p21…

A new investigative report from the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences shows that as many as 15% of chronic disease sufferers in Ontario experience difficulty accessing primary medical care. This lack of continuous regular physician care results in more than 118,000 excess visits to emergency departments annually and more than 17,000 excess hospital admissions annually. The report builds on the findings and recommendations of previous OMA studies that have examined the public impact of the continuing doctor shortage.

____________________________________________________________________________

Produced by the Gateway Rural Health Research Institute, a non-profit corporation. Readers are cautionned that the excerpts quoted are from the publications noted and are intended to encourage readers to peruse the cited articles before drawing conclusions or initiating action. For further information about Gateway, please contact Dr Claudio Munoz, 519-200-9402 email:cmunoz3@uwo.ca. or snail mail: Gateway, 4-32B Centennial Dr, Box 1181, Seaforth ON N0K 1W0.