Distance education for health centre staff in rural Japan

We have evaluated a course delivered by videoconferencing to rural health c entre staff in Hokkaido. The course focused on the planning and evaluation of community health interventions. It included four 90 min sessions and two follow-up sessions. Fourteen professional staff members (public health nur ses, nutritionists and dental assistants) attended each class. Knowledge of community health-care planning and evaluation was higher at post-education testing than pre-education testing. Ratings for 'using a computer', 'using some computer software','using the Internet' and 'interest in telehealth' increased significantly in post-education testing compared with pre-educati on testing. The course had an additional benefit in increasing the collabor ation between community health workers and university staff.