Cross-border simulation training for German and Polish emergency medical teams is feasible: conception and evaluation of a bilingual simulation training.

Background: Cross-border cooperation of emergency medical services, institutions and hospitals helps to reduce negative impact of national borders and consecutive discrimination of persons living and working in border regions. This study aims to explore the feasibility and effectiveness of a cross-border bilingual simulation training for emergency medical services within an INTERREG-VA-funded project.

Methods: Five days of simulation training for German and Polish paramedics in mixed groups were planned.

Health impact of borders: general reflections and a case study from the Polish-German border.

Background And Objective: Political, economic, communicative and cultural borders still limit the accessibility of acute healthcare services for patients so that they frequently have to accept longer distances to travel to the next provider within their own country. In this paper, we analyze the impact of borders and opening of borders on acute medical care in hospitals and on patients in border regions.

Methods: We develop a conceptual framework model of cross-border healthcare and apply it to the Polish-German border area.