Table 1

Search string

Search string(((surg* OR operativ* OR ‘surgical procedur*’ OR anesthe* OR anaesthe* OR obstetric* OR gynecolog* OR gynaecolog*) AND (‘low income’ OR ‘middle income’ OR ‘LMIC’ OR ‘developing countr*’)) OR ‘global surg*’)
DatabasePubMed
Search limits

  • Language: English

  • Publication date: Between 1 January 2015 and 23 February 2020

Inclusion criteria

  • Original article

  • Topic of article:

  1. Any surgical speciality OR anaesthesia OR obstetric/gynaceological care AND

  2. Data relating to Low and Middle Income Countries as the primary focus AND

  3. Focusing on at least one area of research identified by the Lancet Commission Report:

  • Cost and financing of surgical and anaesthesia care in LMICs

  • Quality and safety of surgical and anaesthesia care in LMICs

  • Surgical and anaesthesia care delivery innovations in LMICs

  • Data pertaining to burden of surgical conditions in LMICs

  • Determinants of surgical disease in LMICs

  • Barriers to accessing surgical and anaesthesia care in LMICs

  • Impact of the surgical disease burden in LMICs

  • Preventative strategies to reduce the incidence, development and/or severity of surgical disease in LMICs

  • Partnerships to improve delivery of safe and affordable surgical and anaesthesia care

  • The state of surgical/anaesthetic/obstetric infrastructure in LMICs

  • The state of the surgical/anaesthetic/obstetric workforce in LMICs

  • Training, education, monitoring, expansion and/or retention of the surgical workforce in LMICs

Exclusion criteria

  • Study design: non-systematic reviews, comments, editorials, case reports, protocols

  • Individual author affiliations not stated

  • Collaboration listed as only author

Variables for data collection

  • Study characteristics: Google h5 index, primary and secondary study designs, study topic

  • Author characteristics for all authors:

    • Gender (Male, Female, Unknown)

    • Seniority (1: Undergraduate, 2: Postgraduate, 3: clinicians in a specialty training programme or post-doctoral academics, 4: Principal Investigators or Consultant clinicians, 5: Senior leadership or management, Unknown)

    • Institutional affiliation according to the World Bank income category of the institution’s country13(HIC: High Income Country, UMIC: Upper Middle Income Country, LMIC: Lower Middle Income Country, LIC: Low Income Country, HIC/MIC, HIC/LIC, MIC/LIC, HIC/MIC/LIC)

  • For first and last authors: Countries corresponding to authors’ institutional affiliations