Guest editorial: Health education’s response to women’s health needs; challenges, opportunities and future directions

It is the great honor for us to edit proceedings of “4nd World Conference on Health Sciences (H-SCI 2017)” held on 28-30 April 2017, at the Grand Park Lara Convention Center, Lara, Antalya, Turkey. This privileged scientific event has contributed to the field of educational sciences and research for four years. As the guest editors of this issue, we are glad to see variety of articles focusing on the Health Care Sciences & Services; Health services, hospital administration, health care management, health care financing, health policy and planning, health economics, health education, history of medicine and palliative care. Nutrition & Dietetics; Nutrition & Dietetics covers resources concerning many aspects of nutrition, including general nutrition, nutrition and metabolism, nutrition science, clinical nutrition, vitamin research and nutritional biochemistry. Dietetics, the application of nutritional principles, is also included in this category. Nursing; Nursing covers resources on all aspects of nursing science and practice such as administration, economics, management, education, technological applications and all clinical care specialties. Sport Sciences; Sport Sciences covers resources on the applied physiology of human performance, physical conditioning for sports participation, optimal nutrition for sports performance, and the prevention and treatment of sports-related injuries and diseases. This category also includes resources on sport psychology and sociology. Health Policy & Services; Health Policy & Services covers resources on healthcare systems, including healthcare provision and management, financial analysis, healthcare ethics, health policy, and quality of care.; Hospitality, Leisure, Sport & Tourism; Hospitality, Leisure, Sport & Tourism covers resources that focus on all aspects of recreation and leisure studies, sport, hospitality, and travel and tourism. Rehabilitation Rehabilitation covers resources concerned with therapeutic approaches for the treatment of mental, speech, hearing, visual, and other physical disabilities. This category also includes studies in music, art, dance, and occupational therapy. Health Education; Heath education covers Assess needs for health education programs, Plan effective health education programs, Implement health education programs, Evaluate the effectiveness of health education programs, Coordinate the provision of health education services., Act as a resource person for health education programs, Communicate health education needs, concerns, and resources. Public, Environmental & Occupational Health; Public, Environmental & Occupational Health covers resources on social medicine, health behavior, health education, safety research, and community mental health. Resources concerned with the health of particular groups such as adolescents, elderly, or women are included in this category and etc. Furthermore, the conference is getting more international each year, which is an indicator that it is getting worldwide known and recognized. Scholars from all over the world contributed to the conference. Special thanks are to all the reviewers, the members of the international editorial board, the publisher, and those involved in technical processes. We would like to thank all who contributed to in every process to make this issue actualized. A total of 45 full papers or abstracts were submitted for this conference and each paper has been peer reviewed by the reviewers specialized in the related field. At the end of the review process, a total of 21 high quality research papers were selected and accepted for publication. I hope that you will enjoy reading the papers.

QScience.com is the innovative and collaborative, peer-reviewed, online publishing platform from Hamad bin Khalifa University Press (HBKU Press). It offers a fast and transparent Open Access scholarly publishing process, which is centered on the author, bringing their research to a global audience.

When James Flynn (1984) first reported that American children and adolescents scored higher on IQ tests than did their peers from an earlier generation, that finding generated few ripples in the literature or in clinical practice. Indeed, how would any other result have made sense? The first sets of data compared children from the mid-1930s with the early 1970s on the Stanford-Binet Form L-M and from the late 1940s with the early 1970s on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC). The advent of television, the mass media explosion, the increasing awareness of the importance of a stimulating early environment, and other societal changes during the intervening years provided a simple and handy explanation for the 3 points per decade gain that Flynn observed in the United States. Flynn’s (1987) next publication, however, started to rock the empirical and clinical foundations of the nature of intelligence and cognitive development and the psychometric measurement of IQ. The gains in IQ from one generation to the next (which would come to be known as the Flynn effect [FE]) occurred on a worldwide basis, according to data from 14 developed nations, and the 3-point-per-decade American gain paled in comparison with the larger gains in most other nations studied. In fact, gains about twice that large occurred in Japan and in European countries such as Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands. These gains defied easy explanation (Neisser, 1998). So did the fact that the 3-point-per-decade gain in the United States was not limited to post–World War II societal advances, but continued to occur into the 1980s (Kaufman & Kaufman, 1983), the 1990s (Wechsler, 1991), and the 2000s (Roid, 2003; Wechsler, 2008). FE has apparently stopped, and even reversed, in some Scandinavian countries (Teasdale & Owen, 2008), but it has remained a virtual constant gain for children and adults in the United States for the past eight decades. Researchers differ on why the FE occurs. Some claim that genetics is the key variable (Rodgers & Wanstrom, 2007), though most stress environmental factors such as nutrition (Colom, LluisFont, & Andres-Pueyo, 2005), education (Teasdale & Owen, 2005), or improvement in public health (Steen, 2009). Flynn (2007, 2009), in What Is Intelligence?, explains the effect named after him in terms of a societal shift from concrete to abstract thinking, whereas other scholars and researchers maintain that the so-called effect is nothing more than an artifact of statistical or methodological origin (Beaujean & Osterlind, 2008; Rodgers, 1998). And, in fact, the dispute about the scientific validity of the FE has entered the U.S. courtrooms in a big way as a burgeoning array of law cases asks whether the FE should be considered when sentencing low-functioning criminals convicted of a capital crime. Ever since the Supreme Court’s decision in Atkins v. Virginia (2002), which stipulated that a criminal who is mentally retarded cannot be executed,

Incorporating Environmental Health in Clinical Medicine

INTRODUCTION Welcome to this Special Issue of Communication Studies! The purposes of this introduction are five-fold: (1) provide a precis of Communication to better situate the current issue; (2) express my deep gratitude to CSCA's Comm Interest Group Leaders and members for enabling me to serve as Guest Editor; (3) acknowledge the expertise, diligence, and commitment of a remarkable Editorial Board, Editorial Assistants, and Website developer; (4) to profusely thank several individuals who contributed to the crafting of this Special Issue behind the scenes and (5) highlight the contributions of the featured articles. It is my ardent aspiration that this SI will become a must read and standard citation for present and prospective health communication scholars, practitioners, and students. And if this volume does ascend such lofty heights, then, all those involved, from editorial assistants to aspiring authors, should be greatly commended. BACKGROUND As Kreps and Query (1990) report, Health communication emerged in the 1970s and 1980s as an active and exciting area of social scientific inquiry concerned with the central role of human interaction in the provision of health care and health promotion (p. 293). It can influence, integrate, bridge, and be shaped by several disciplines such as medicine, nursing, health psychology, medical sociology and anthropology, health education and promotion, epidemiology, social work, dentistry, optometry, law, health services administration, occupational and physical therapy, as well as pharmacy. Notwithstanding its rich, interdisciplinary nature, health communication is distinct from the preceding areas in that it focuses on the role of message behavior-verbal and nonverbal-through a variety of channels and across multiple contexts. Representative foci initially included: doctor-patient interaction, patient compliance /satisfaction, social support, health care team interaction, health care organizational communication, and mass media health campaigns (see Kreps, 1988; Thompson, 1994, 1984; Pettegrew & Logan, 1987). While much of the early health communication research was atheoretical and unsophisticated (Pettegrew & Logan, 1987; Thompson, 1984), that is no longer the case today (Kreps, 2000; Thompson, 1994). communication scholars are conducting NIH, CDC, and/or NIOSH-funded projects focusing on public health campaigns in the areas of substance abuse (Burgoon et al., 2002), HIV/AIDS prevention (Glik, Nowak, Valente, Sapsis, & Martin, 2002), and skin cancer (Parrott, Monahan, Ainsworth, & Steiner, 1998). communication scholars are taking the lead in examining the role of computer-mediated social support (Braithwaite, Waldron, Finn, 1999), and the use of the Internet across a variety of health contexts (Rice & Katz, 2001). As Kreps, Query, and Bonaguro (in press) indicate, there are multiple signs that further reinforce the vitality of Communication inquiry. In 1989, Lawrence Erlbaum and Associates launched Communication with the Founding Editor being Teresa L. Thompson, Ph.D. In 1996, Taylor and Francis launched The Journal of Communication: International Perspectives, with the Founding Editor being Scott S. Ratzan, M. D. In 2003, this latter journal will disseminate six issues, an increase from the previous quarterly releases. Approximately three years ago, the National Cancer Institute established a Communication and Informatics Research Branch, with its Chief being a Communication scholar, Gary L. Kreps, Ph.D. Circa 1998, created by' Marifran Mattson, Ph.D., and underwritten by Purdue University, an award- winning, website centering on health communication research, pedagogy, and application goes online [http://www.sla.purdue.edu/healthcomm]. Beginning in 1991 through 1996, two special issues of the American Behavioral Scientist and one special issue of The Journal of Psychology were devoted to Communication (see Kreps, Bonaguro, & Query, 1998). …

<p>Having published the monograph entitled <cite>“Psychiatric Prevention and the Family Life Cycle: Risk Reduction by Frontline Practitioners”</cite> in 1989, the Prevention Committee of the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry (GAP) continues its tradition of disseminating thorough overviews of prevention in psychiatry with this issue of <cite>Psychiatric Annals</cite>. Whereas the 1989 monograph dealt with identifying and intervening on potential risks at each stage of the family system’s life cycle (ie, marriage and family formation, infancy, the toddler years, etc., through the midlife family and aging), the series of articles in this issue of <cite>Psychiatric Annals</cite> provides a survey of the recent literature on several timely prevention topics for practicing clinical psychiatrists: prevention psychiatry, suicide prevention, prodromal states and early intervention in psychosis, alcohol and drug abuse prevention, adverse childhood events as risk factors, becoming a preventionist, and a resident’s perspective on prevention in psychiatry.</p><h4>ABOUT THE GUEST EDITOR</h4><p>Michael T. Compton, MD, MPH, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Department of Family and Preventive Medicine at the Emory University School of Medicine. He also has an appointment in the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Health Education at the Rollins School of Public Health of Emory University. Dr. Compton received his medical degree from the University of Virginia School of Medicine in Charlottesville, Virginia, and completed his psychiatry residency, public health degree, preventive medicine residency, and community psychiatry/public health fellowship at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, and treats patients at Grady Health System in downtown Atlanta.</p><p>Dr. Compton serves on the Prevention Committee of the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry (GAP), the Prevention Practice Committee of the American College of Preventive Medicine, the Core Examination Committee of the American Board of Preventive Medicine, and the Board of Trustees of the Georgia Psychiatric Physicians Association. He is co-director of the Emory University Fellowship in Community Psychiatry/Public Health.</p><p>In 2006, Dr. Compton received the William Kane Rising Star Award of the American College of Preventive Medicine and a Leader of the Future Award of the International Early Psychosis Association. He receives research support through a K23 patient-oriented research career development award from the National Institute of Mental Health. His research interests include the multifactorial determinants of the duration of untreated psychosis (DUP), associations among risk markers in patients with schizophrenia and their first-degree relatives, correlates of substance use in the early course of schizophrenia, and the Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) model of collaboration between law enforcement and mental health.</p>

The first installment of our seventeenth volume, this issue reflects the fact the February is Black History Month. The continuing importance of race and ethnicity as constructs in public health is reflected in most of the papers in this rich issue.* A supplement from the Kellogg/Community Voices Program (headquartered at the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta) accompanies this issue. The supplement's Guest Editors are Drs. Ron Braithwaite, Henri Treadwell, Marguerite Ro, and Kisha Braithwaite. The supplement's themes of practical experience developing solutions in the areas of community health, oral health, and tobacco cessation fit well with the mission of JHCPU. We are especially pleased that Morehouse's Interim President, Dr. David Satcher, the 16th U.S. Surgeon General (and JHCPU's founder from his days at Meharry) has contributed a Commentary. The current issue benefits from two Reports concerning global health by leaders in public health and medical education. Dr. Bailus Walker, a member of JHCPU's Editorial Board, and two colleagues report on a Workshop on Globalization and Public Health held at Howard University in 2004. Many of their recommendations and reflections concern how education of medical and public health professionals should rise to the challenge of globalization. Drs. Jennifer Furin, Paul Farmer, and a group of colleagues from Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) and Harvard University, as if in response, describe in detail a new graduate medical education program in health equity at BWH. The Howard Hiatt Residency in Global Health Equity and Internal Medicine was developed as a four-year program to provide intensive training in internal medicine and health disparities. Participating residents are matched with a mentor who has clinical and research experience in the field of global health. Arthur and Katkin's insightful editorial on the importance of recognizing ethnic sub-categories of race is matched by an empirical paper by Garbers looking at differences and similarities with respect to breast cancer screening between African American and Caribbean-born women living in New York City. Simultaneously tracking race and ethnicity will enable public health researchers better to understand similarities and differences within and across social groupings. Fowler-Brown et al.'s paper concerns research on the perceptions of Black and White adults in the rural South, young and old, of racial barriers to receiving care. Kaplan and colleagues also seek insight into the points of view of the medically underserved on racial and ethnic disparities that affect them: their focus groups with Black and Hispanic residents of the South Bronx come vividly to life in this beautifully written paper. [End Page v] Health educators play vital roles in stemming the progress of infections such as HIV. Dancy and colleagues investigated whether, when the target audience was low-income African American adolescent girls, mothers might be the best teachers about HIV. Their idea was a sound one and this research provides a model for improved education to prevent the spread of HIV in this highly vulnerable population. Despite the importance of race and ethnicity in public health, large data sets do not always contain reliable information about it. Long and colleagues examined existing Veterans Health Administration-based disparities research and found that, in articles reporting missing data (about 50% of the total) such information was reported missing 0-48% of the time. This research brings to the forefront the importance of establishing and using consistent methods for collecting data on race and ethnicity. Sambamoorthi and colleagues found race-related differences in their investigation of diabetes mellitus and depression care among Medicaid beneficiaries. Controlling for other characteristics, diabetic African Americans diagnosed with depression were less likely to receive antidepressant treatment and, if they did receive such treatment, more likely to receive the older tricyclic drugs (which can have negative effects on the patient's glycemic control) than were Whites. The bottom line is that among depressed Medicaid beneficiaries with diabetes, there are racial differences with regard...

Purpose This Special Issue aims to place the spotlight on educational research and its contribution to the field of school-based health and wellbeing promotion. The purpose is to bring together scholars from across the world to consider current developments in research on curricula, interventions, policies and practices concerning health and wellbeing promotion and related professional development of teachers. Design/methodology/approach The members of European Educational Research Association (EERA) Network Research on Health Education (Network 8) were invited to submit their conceptual or empirical work addressing processes and outcomes in school health and wellbeing promotion. Additionally, an open call for papers was published on the Health Education website and on EERA website. Following the double blind peer review process and editorial work by the guest editors and the editor in chief, six of the submissions that were accepted for publishing are selected to be published in this issue and the rest w...

Previous articleNext article FreeCall for PapersOut of the Closet and into the Classroom: Reassessing the Boundaries of Gender and Sexual Minorities in Comparative and International EducationOren Pizmony-Levy, Wenli Liu, Carla Moleiro, Thabo Msibi, Marcos Nascimento, and Jacqueline UllmanOren Pizmony-Levy Search for more articles by this author , Wenli Liu Search for more articles by this author , Carla Moleiro Search for more articles by this author , Thabo Msibi Search for more articles by this author , Marcos Nascimento Search for more articles by this author , and Jacqueline Ullman Search for more articles by this author Full TextPDF Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailQR Code SectionsMoreThe study of human sexuality and of the feelings, thoughts, attractions, and behaviors associated with it is on the rise across the humanities and social sciences. Scholars now approach human sexuality not only as a psychological but also as a socially constructed and organized phenomenon. This trend is evident in the field of education, in which scholars have documented the experience of sexual minorities (i.e., lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, LGBTQ+) in schools and higher education institutions. The representation of sexual minorities throughout the curriculum, the enforcement/policing of heteronormativity in education, and the role of social movements in challenging the status quo are areas of commentary and analysis. Much of this research, however, has focused on the United States and other Western countries.In recent years, there has been increasing international attention to the experiences of LGBTQ+ students in schools and a growing concern regarding anti-LGBT violence and bias directed at youth as a serious human rights issue and a barrier to global development goals (Kosciw and Pizmony-Levy 2016). Over the past decade, UNESCO has articulated a need for more research on LGBTQ+ students globally, particularly in developing countries, and begun to host new initiatives, including the first ever international consultation on homophobic and transphobic bullying in schools, which was accompanied by two related publications (UNESCO 2012a, 2012b). This development is also evident in the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES).The year 2018 marked the 10-year anniversary of the first panel on LGBTQ+ youth at the 2008 CIES Conference in New York. The first panel, which included presentations from NGOs and academics working in four Western countries (Canada, Israel, United Kingdom, and United States), sought to advance knowledge by examining the similarities and differences regarding the experiences of LGBTQ+ students and by situating these experiences in larger cultural and political contexts. Similar panels were organized in 2010 and each year since 2012. These engagements have led to the establishment of a special interest group (SIG) dedicated to sexual orientation, gender identity, and expression (SOGIE). Yet, the number of publications on sexualities or LGBTQ+ people in international and comparative education journals remains very low. This is also the case with Comparative Education Review, in which discussion of LGBTQ+ issues has been particularly limited (Easton 2015; Nordtveit 2017).The Comparative Education Review special issue on genders and sexualities seeks to gain insights from scholars in the field who examine the intersection of sexualities and education in hopes of increasing research on this topic. The editors are interested in empirical studies—qualitative, quantitative, and mixed method—that focus on the experience of sexual minorities in educational settings and in the educational development world. We also seek papers exploring the intersection of sexualities and policy/practice, globalization and migration, and social movements. Book and media (e.g., virtual archives, motion pictures, websites) reviews, as well as essay reviews (integrating multiple media sources), connected to sexualities, genders, and education are also strongly encouraged. The editors of the special issue adopt a broad, interdisciplinary perspective covering the whole of the social sciences, cultural history, cultural anthropology, and social geography, as well as gender studies and queer, lesbian, and gay studies.This special issue of CER is scheduled to be published in April 2022. To be considered for publication, manuscripts should be submitted via CER’s online submission system by January 15, 2021; earlier submission is encouraged. See the CER website (https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/CER/instruct.htm) for instructions in preparing and submitting manuscripts. The guest editor, Oren Pizmony-Levy (Teachers College, Columbia University, United States), and the guest editorial board—Wenli Liu (Beijing Normal University), Carla Moleiro (ISCTE–University Institute of Lisbon, Portugal), Thabo Msibi (University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa), Marcos Nascimento (Oswaldo Cruz Foundation [Fiocruz], Brazil), and Jacqueline Ullman (Western Sydney University, Australia)—will read all submissions and send out for blind, external review those manuscripts deemed to be developed sufficiently to warrant such review. Please address any questions you may have about this special issue to the CER managing editors at [email protected].ReferencesEaston, P. B. 2015. “Comparative Education Review Bibliography 2014: Catching Up with the Rapid Growth of the Field.” Comparative Education Review 59 (4): 743–64.First citation in articleLinkGoogle ScholarKosciw, J. G., and O. Pizmony-Levy. 2016. “International Perspectives on Homophobic and Transphobic Bullying in Schools.” Journal of LGBT Youth 13 (1–2): 1–5.First citation in articleCrossrefGoogle ScholarNordtveit, B. H. 2017. “CER News: Sexual Diversity, Marginalization, and the Comparative Education Review.” CIES Perspective. http://www.cies.us/.First citation in articleGoogle ScholarUNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) 2012a. Education Sector Responses to Homophobic Bullying. Good Policy and Practice in HIV and Health Education 8. Paris: UNESCO.First citation in articleGoogle ScholarUNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) 2012b. Review of Homophobic Bullying in Educational Institutions. Paris: UNESCO.First citation in articleGoogle Scholar Previous articleNext article DetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Comparative Education Review Volume 65, Number 1February 2021 Sponsored by the Comparative and International Education Society Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/714567 Views: 300 © 2021 by the Comparative and International Education Society. All rights reserved. Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Health education's response to the COVID-19 pandemic: Global challenges and future directions

In his foreword to the recent Department of Human Services (DHS) publication Community participation in community health: A PHACS information resource 3 (1999), the Parliamentary Secretary to the Victorian Minister for Health says that the 'heart' of the current primary health and community support (PHACS) reforms is to ensure that the 'locally based alliances' which are to emerge from them will be responsive to client needs, and notes also that the proposed PHACS demonstration projects will have to include plans for community participation. The aim of this Information Resource in the series Towards a stronger primary health and community support system from the Department of Human Services Victoria, is to guide workers in community health agencies, and in the other PHACS services, in developing ways of encouraging community participation. As such, the document provides both a rationale and practical suggestions, and should be a useful resource for board members and staff of community agencies, as well as for those either teaching or studying in such fields as health promotion and health education, where engaging the interest of members of the public is a central purpose.

.. ublic health practice is (in my view) taking responsibility for the health of a defined population. Responsibility means: professional accountability to a representative body, in die way clinicians are accountable to their patients; enhancing health through a full range of measures that include health protection, health promotion, preventive medicine and medical care; and a focus on the health of everyone in the population, usually defined by an administrative boundary. Who shoulders this responsibility? At national level, the Chief Medical Officers advise their ministers. Within their many roles, ministnes of health direct health services, including negotiating levels of finance and standards of professional staff; and most ministries have a strategic plan based on WHO Health for All principles. But there is much less uniformity at local level. Although there is almost always a city or county department of health, the various responsibilities for health are often divided across other agencies parallel structures for environmental health, communicable disease control, health promotion, and independent clinical practitioners. When I visited one city health department recently, the Chief Officer said she had no regular contact with either the ministry of health or her colleagues in other health departments. Equally, she had no contact with the local university department of public health, and felt that her staff were too busy for her to be able to send them for training. EUPHA has the potential to provide support for isolated practitioners and to create more effective public health practice at local level. In contrast with clinical practice in health care, structures for public health differ markedly across countries, and overall public health activities are rarely unified. In a traditional model, public health services may undertake health protection, for example through immunisation, but have little input into decisions on the environment that affect health. The municipality may make public provision for the care of disadvantaged or uninsured groups (maternal and child health, people with severe mental illness), but have no input into decisions on other priorities for use of resources for local health care. There may be health education in schools, but no broader approach to health promotion. Specialised health practitioners are increasingly providing these services, so the function of public health is necessanly changing. Schools

This special issue represents a collaboration involving the New Zealand (NZ) Rural General Practice Network, Rural Health Alliance Aotearoa NZ (RHAANZ) and the National Rural Health Alliance (NRHA) in Australia. It is envisaged that this will be the beginning of an ongoing Australasian focus for the Journal. In this issue, some of Australia's and NZ’s most prominent rural health researchers and leaders have provided complimentary trans-Tasman commentary on a range of important rural health topics. The topics cover rural health delivery, advocacy, policy and education for a range of health professional groups, as well as original research. Few countries have as much in common as Australia and NZ, including the way their health and education systems are organised. Given the commonalities, the differences in rural health highlighted in this special edition are surprising. David Lyle and Jennene Greenhill outline the history and the achievements of the university Departments of Rural Health and the Rural Clinical School Programs, a collective ‘critical mass’ of academic health activity now embedded in rural communities across Australia. John Burton and Martin London have been advocating over a similar period for similar initiatives in NZ,1, 2 where progress has been much slower. The proposals from NZ universities currently being taken to government is a positive step, but there is no immediate prospect that they will receive the funding they need. This underscores the important role of rural health advocacy and the successes of the NRHA that Lesley Barclay and Gordon Gregory outline in their article. This includes the publication of the AJRH. The initiative taken by the RNZGPN and RHAANZ in sponsoring this edition of the Journal is encouraging. At the same time, it is disappointing to hear from Martin London that the NZ equivalent of the NRHA, RHAANZ, has gone into ‘hibernation’ because of a lack of funding. John Wakerman and John Humphreys discuss the development of the Modified Monash Model, an evidence-based rural typology that has been adopted by the Australian Government. In an accompanying commentary, Dave Fearnley discusses the implications of not having a fit-for-purpose rural urban classification in NZ3 and Jesse Whitehead presents early work to help rectify this. Other articles co-authored by Australian and NZ authors suggest that in paramedicine (O'Meara & Duthie) and in efforts to improve the physical health of people living with mental illness (Roberts et al.), the similarities outweigh the differences between the countries. Given the documented disparities, improving health outcomes for rural Māori and Aboriginal communities must be the top priority for all of us working in rural health research or clinical practice. Although Māori students are now entering NZ medical schools in much greater numbers,4 the short report by Yassar Almari raises the concerning possibility that Māori students may be less likely to take up careers in academic medicine. Marara Koroheke-Rogers and Katharina Blattner also remind us that partnering rural Māori communities in research involves much more than following university and ethics protocols and necessitates engaging in the processes that belong to that community. This article is presented alongside the results of the original research into rural point-of-care ultrasound (Nixon et al.) and a commentary by Kate Senior. Two guest editors were appointed, Dr Garry Nixon (University of Otago) and Associate Professor Oliver Burmeister (Charles Sturt University). Associate Professor Burmeister is a technologist who specialises in health care technologies. He has previously published in AJRH5 and has collaborated with various health care professionals for publications in clinical journals,6-9 as well as in technology journals.10-14 Dr Nixon remains in active clinical practice as a rural generalist at Dunstan Hospital in Central Otago, NZ. He was recently appointed as Head of the new Section of Rural Health at the University of Otago. His interests include the vocational training of rural generalists and rural versus urban disparities in NZ, with particular focus on improving access to diagnostic services for rural populations.

Message from Guest Editors

Guest editorial: Social justice, equity and agency: global challenges linking health, well-being and sustainability education