Cross-border strategies for access to healthcare in violent conflict – A scoping review

BACKGROUND: The geographical reconfiguration of healthcare systems in times of violent conflict is increasingly being recognised in academic literature. This includes conflict-induced, cross-border travel for medical treatment. Yet the conceptual approach to this healthcare-seeking behaviour, by a population here referred to as cross-border population, remains poorly understood. This scoping review identifies academic literature on cross-border populations to map the current approach to cross-border populations and to propose a research agenda. METHODS: The study used a scoping review following the Joanna Briggs Institute Scoping Review methodology. We included articles on conflicts between 1980 and 2019. RESULTS: A total of 53 articles met the inclusion criteria. From these articles, we distinguished four types of studies on cross-border healthcare: Direct analysis, implicit analysis, clinical research, and identification. The 45 articles belonging to the first three categories were then searched for themes specifically relevant to healthcare for cross-border populations and linked with sub-themes such as border crossing time and the types of healthcare available. These themes were structured into three main areas: access to care; quality of care; and governance of care. Our analysis then describes the available knowledge, documented practices, and challenges of cross-border healthcare specifically in conflict settings. CONCLUSIONS: A better understanding of cross-border healthcare systems is required to inform local practices and develop related regional and international policies. While the reviewed literature provides some highlights on various practices of cross-border healthcare, there are many gaps in available knowledge of this topic. To address these gaps, our study proposes a research framework outlining key themes and research questions to be investigated by signposting where major research and operational gaps remain. This facilitates well-directed future work on cross-border therapeutic geographies in the context of armed conflict and furthers understanding of a hitherto largely ignored area of the international healthcare system.