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PERSPECTIVE article

Front. Med.

Sec. Healthcare Professions Education

Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2025.1600660

This article is part of the Research TopicDistributed Training and Rural Health Professions EducationView all 16 articles

Research in place: the critical role of rural health research in Canada

Provisionally accepted
Stephanie WeltonStephanie Welton1*Margo WilsonMargo Wilson2Barb ZelekBarb Zelek3David PontinDavid Pontin4Grace PerezGrace Perez5Nelly D. OelkeNelly D. Oelke6,7Aaron JohnstonAaron Johnston8Jill KonkinJill Konkin9
  • 1Department of Family Medicine (South West Nova Site), Dalhousie University, Yarmouth, Canada
  • 2Discipline of Emergency Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University, St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada
  • 3Section of Family Medicine, Northern Ontario School of Medicine University, Thunder Bay, Canada
  • 4Department of Family Medicine (Yellowknife Site), Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry, University of Alberta, Yellowknife, Canada
  • 5Distributed Learning and Rural Initiatives, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
  • 6School of Nursing, University of British Columbia Okanagan Campus, Kelowna, Canada
  • 7Rural Coordination Centre of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
  • 8Distributed Learning and Rural Initiatives, Departments of Emergency Medicine and Family Medicine, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
  • 9Department of Family Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

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People in rural communities often experience different access to healthcare and services, which can lead to poorer health outcomes compared to their urban counterparts. This holds true across the international context, though our focus here is on Canada. Health research plays a crucial role in identifying challenges and solutions, and we argue that research conducted in rural communities by rural researchers is essential to addressing the unique needs of a rural population. However, several barriers hinder rural research in Canada, including inadequate infrastructure, uneven resource distribution, and the absence of a national rural research network. Prioritizing rural research is vital, as it can improve workforce recruitment and retention while guiding informed healthcare decisions and policies.

Keywords: Research Capacity Building, rural health research, Primary care research, rural medical education, distributed medical education

Received: 26 Mar 2025; Accepted: 28 Jul 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Welton, Wilson, Zelek, Pontin, Perez, Oelke, Johnston and Konkin. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Stephanie Welton, Department of Family Medicine (South West Nova Site), Dalhousie University, Yarmouth, Canada

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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