Patient navigation services for cancer care in low-and middle-income countries: A scoping review.

Background: Nearly 70% of all cancer deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and many of these cancer deaths are preventable. In high-income countries (HICs), patient navigation strategies have been successfully implemented to facilitate the patient's journey at multiple points along the cancer care continuum. The purpose of this scoping review is to understand and describe the scope of patient navigation interventions and services employed in LMICs.

Surgical volunteerism or voluntourism - Are we doing more harm than good?

The significant rise in the number of international health electives undertaken by medical students and doctors in the US, Canada and UK reflects acknowledgement of the inter-connected nature of these challenges to health systems and the drive to help solve them. However, the next generation of international volunteers often operate under a conflicting duality: whilst many of their role models have devoted their lives to global health following a similar volunteering experience, there are pervasive ethical problems associated with transient global health work that must be identified and addressed to ensure positive outcomes for all parties involved. The majority of populations served by shortterm surgical volunteer trips are vulnerable communities; this raises ethical questions such as the lack of informed consent, use of unauthorised photos for marketing, and practicing new procedural techniques.

Are the SDGs leaving safer surgical systems behind?

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has set out its new aims for the post-2015 global agenda in the form of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Discussions around the historically neglected role of emergency and essential surgical interventions in global health has attracted widespread attention with the help of well-timed, high-profile reports including the Lancet Commission for Global Surgery [1]. The case for promoting safe surgery is clear with evidence suggesting that at least two-thirds of the years of life lost globally will be attributed to surgical conditions by 2025 [1].