Inclusion and exclusion criteria of the systematic review
| Inclusion criteria | Exclusion criteria |
| Studies pertaining to surgery, obstetrics or anaesthesia. | Studies pertaining to non-operative specialties. |
| Studies about physicians from HICs doing clinical work in LMICs. | Studies describing LMIC situations, not including visiting teams; studies about research or policy work; studies about work in countries that are not LMICs; studies pertaining to surgical care in humanitarian or military settings. |
| Studies presenting original data on the perspective of LMIC stakeholders affected by or participating in these programmes. | Clinical case-reports of individual surgical patients; studies only describing HIC perspective. |
HICs, high-income countries; LMICs, low-income and middle-income countries.