Defining medical deserts-an international consensus-building exercise.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Medical deserts represent a pressing public health and health systems challenge. The COVID-19 pandemic further exacerbated the gap between people and health services, yet a commonly agreed definition of medical deserts was lacking. This study aims to define medical deserts through a consensus-building exercise, explaining the phenomenon to its full extent, in a manner that can apply to countries and health systems across the globe.

Methods

We used a standard Delphi exercise for the consensus-building process. The first phase consisted of one round of individual online meetings with selected key informants; the second phase comprised two rounds of surveys when a consensus was reached in January 2023. The first phase-the in-depth individual meetings-was organized on

SUBMITTER: Brinzac MG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10567127 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature