Transnational Patients: Practical and Ethical Implications for Medical Practices and Health Promotions Policy

• Author: Niko Kohls,James Giordano,Nina Zeldes,Eileen Moore,Eberhard Nöfer,Kevin FitzGerald,Hansjörg Dilger
• Published date: 01 June 2018
• Date: 01 June 2018
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/wmh3.263

Transnational Patients: Practical and Ethical

Implications for Medical Practices and Health

Promotions Policy

Nina Zeldes , Hansj€

org Dilger, Kevin FitzGerald, Niko Kohls, Eileen Moore,

Eberhard N€

ofer, and James Giordano

Health care is becoming increasingly transnational and a shift to more promotive and preventative

approaches forms an integral part of addressing challenges to global health and health disparities.

Community and public engagement programs are particularly well suited to successfully developing

care that is resonant and meaningful in transnational contexts. Yet many existing programs do not

take into account the diverse perspectives of the heterogeneous group of transnational patients, and

guidelines that address their specif‌ic needs are still scarce. At the same time, little has been done to

build a framework to share successful local programs with a broader community. We thus propose a

global database of best practices and guidelines for transnational health-care promotions to improve

health care and well-being across diverse communities, consisting of a three-step assessment in order

to successfully design locally adapted programs that are accepted by target populations and

successfully engage transnational patients and their health-care providers.

KEY WORDS: transnational patients, health promotion, global health

Introduction

In the contemporary, ever more globalized world, health care (i.e., medicin e

and allied clinical and non clinical salutogenet ically oriented practices) and the

administrative progra ms that support it is becoming incr easingly transnational,

with both patients and hea lth-care providers tr avelling more freely than ever

before (Dilger, Kane, & Lan gwick, 2012). This has evok ed concerns about healt h

disparities, and the need t o focus attention on global and local aspects of

health, health practice s, and medical care. In this li ght, there has been—and

continues to be—increasing multi-organizatio nal intent to engage glob al health

issues and health dispari ties. This includes fost ering effective policie s to

support effective approa ches, and improving provi sion of—and access to—

health services for tran snational patients (e. g., World Health Organiza tion

[WHO], 2010).

1

The challenges posed by di verse groups of transn ational

World Medical & Health Policy, Vol. 10, No. 2, 2018

198

doi: 10.1002/wmh3.263

#2018 Policy Studies Organization