Who said living in rural America was easy? Turns out, country living is downright dangerous, compared to life in the metros, according to a recent study.   "The perception is that life in rural areas is peaceful, tranquil, serene," said Jeffrey H. Coben, M.D., a professor in the WVU Injury Control Research Center. "If you just look at violence - person against person - the rates are higher in urban areas. But for virtually every other cause of trauma, the risks are substantially greater in rural areas."

As the population density decreases, hospitalization rates for injuries increases. Hospitalization rates for injuries were 35% higher in sparsely populated rural counties compared to urban counties. Large urban counties carried the highest hospitalization rates for assaults. But rural counties led in hospitalizations for motor-vehicle crashes, falls and poisonings. Self-inflicted injuries were also higher in rural counties, with poisons, knives and guns the instruments of choice.

There are tons of reasons for the higher injury rates. More people are engaged in high-risk occupations in rural areas, like mining and logging. Injuries in car crashes are higher because people drive more and because seatbelt usage is lower.

It will only be one of 8,500 community forums the Obama Administration will hold on the nation's health care system, but this was among the first, it was attended by incoming Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Daschle and it took place in a town of just 700 people. Some 35 people turned out in Dublin, Indiana, yesterday to talk about health care. A woman asked what her 13-year-old son would do for health insurance, given his congenital heart problem, according to a report in the Indianapolis Star. A family practice office manager told of the mountainous number of forms he had to fill out to be paid by insurance companies. The fire chief wondered who would pay for new equipment his volunteer outfit would need by 2010.

Daschle (above, at the meeting) asked questions and took notes. He said the stories he heard will help change the minds of some in Congress. The Washington Post sees the forums as part of an elaborate, grass-roots campaign similar to the effort that elected the Democrat. With other issues, it seems the Obama transition team has scant understanding of rural needs. Not so with health care, it appears.

A study that attempted to determine if venison eaters had higher levels of lead in their blood was released this week. The results were inconclusive. Last year a Bismarck, North Dakota, doctor and hunter X-rayed venison collected from food pantries around the state. In May, a more formal study of 738 North Dakota residents began, reports the Bismarck Tribune .

The epidemiologist who conducted the study said the tests indicated that those people who eat a lot of venison killed with lead ammunition "tended to have higher lead levels than those who ate little or none." However, none of those tested had lead levels that would be considered elevated.

State officials recommended that people could minimize their consumption of lead by following safe processing procedures. The state's recommendations can be found here.

These days you don't read many 5000-word feature stories -- they're nearly as hard to find as a doctor in rural Idaho. So thanks to the Boise Weekly and writer Carissa Wolf for an excellent article about the state's shortage of physicians and the Family Medicine Residency program that's had some success bringing doctors in.

Idaho ranks last in the nation in physicians-per-patient. Susie Pouiiot, head of the Idaho Medical Association (IMA), told Wolf "if all Idahoans had health insurance, many would still have a tough time accessing medical care," even in Boise, the capital. In rural parts of the state, the doctor shortage is staggering. Wolf interviews a number of country doctors: "Everybody needs you and you're the only show in town," says one. Another makes his weekly rounds via airplane.

Wolf describes a breathless day in the life of a rural physician. She also explains the difficulties attracting new doctors and a number of state efforts to turn the problem around: a possible Idaho medical school, reduced tuition at med schools in neighboring states, analysis of rural physicians' "personality types." But Pouliot of the IMA has found, residency programs "give you the best bang for your buck."

Wolf writes that "physicians tend to establish practices near their residency programs. Fifty-four percent of the graduates of the Family Medicine Residency of Idaho program practice in Idaho. The majority of those physicians practice in rural areas."