title: Financing pediatric surgery in low-, and middle-income countries.
abstract: Congenital anomalies once considered fatal, are now surgically correctable conditions that now allow children to live a normal life. Pediatric surgery, traditionally thought of as a privilege of the rich, as being too expensive and impractical, and which has previously been overlooked and excluded in resource-poor settings, is now being reexamined as a cost-effective strategy to reduce the global burden of disease-particularly in low, and middle-income countries (LMICs). However, to date, global pediatric surgical financing suffers from an alarming paucity of data. To leverage valuable resources and prioritize pediatric surgical services, timely, accurate and detailed global health spending and financing for pediatric surgical care is needed to inform policy making, strategic health-sector budgeting and resource allocation. This discussions aims to characterize and highlight the evidence gaps that currently exist in global financing and funding flow for pediatric surgical care in LMICs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL.
authors.forename: Grace
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Hsiung
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL; Division of Pediatric Surgery, Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, IL.
authors.forename: Fizan
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Abdullah
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D000067576:Child Health / Q000191:economics*; D017281:Cost of Illness; D003906:Developing Countries / Q000191:economics*; D014943:Global Health / Q000191:economics*; D061889:Healthcare Financing; D006801:Humans; D013043:Specialties, Surgical / Q000191:economics*
keywords: Child health services; Financing pediatric surgery; Global child health; Global pediatric surgery; Global surgery; Health financing