Defining medical deserts—an international consensus-building exercise
This article explains the concept of medical deserts and how they affect access to healthcare. It discusses how people living in rural or underserved areas may have difficulty accessing necessary medical services because of a lack of healthcare providers and resources. The article also works toward creating a common definition of what qualifies as a medical desert.
The agreed definition highlight five major dimensions: ‘Medical deserts are areas where population healthcare needs are unmet partially or totally due to lack of adequate access or improper quality of healthcare services caused by (i) insufficient human resources in health or (ii) facilities, (iii) long waiting times, (iv) disproportionate high costs of services or (v) other socio-cultural barriers’ (Brînzac et al., 2023).
The article argues that healthcare access should be understood broadly, considering availability, affordability, waiting time, facilities, healthcare workers, and social/cultural barriers, and proposes an internationally agreed definition of “medical deserts.”
The expression ‘medical desert’ does not have a formal, globally accepted definition, which influences negatively the effectiveness of policies to counteract the effects of medical deserts, as there are no defined areas to specifically target with policies in lack of a definition (Brînzac et al., 2023).
The study concludes that the term “medical desert” may not be the most appropriate globally, as “health desert” better captures the lack of physical, social, and emotional care necessary in rural areas. This article demonstrates why terminology is important and why it should be clearly defined and agreed upon globally.
I found it interesting that there is not one globally accepted definition of a medical desert. Having a clear definition could help researchers and policymakers identify communities that need additional support and better understand what types of resources are missing. The article made me think more about the importance of looking at healthcare access from the perspective of the people who actually need it rather than only measuring the number of hospitals or providers in an area. Overall, this research helped me see rural healthcare as a complex system with multiple barriers that need to be considered when addressing access.
Reference
Brînzac, M. G., Kuhlmann, E., Dussault, G., Ungureanu, M. I., Cherecheș, R. M., & Baba, C. O. (2023). Defining medical deserts—An international consensus-building exercise. European Journal of Public Health, 33(5), 785–788. https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckad107
