{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,29]],"date-time":"2026-07-29T18:00:42Z","timestamp":1785348042293,"version":"3.55.0"},"reference-count":26,"publisher":"Public Library of Science (PLoS)","issue":"7","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,29]],"date-time":"2026-07-29T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1785283200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["www.plosglobalpublichealth.org"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["PLOS Glob Public Health"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Visa inequities in global health have moved from the margins of academic discourse to the centre of a growing reform agenda. While recent literature has established that visa regimes function as structural determinants of global health participation, a critical gap remains: the solution pathways proposed to date remain dispersed across commentaries, editorials and toolkits rather than consolidated into a coordinated operational framework that institutions, conference bodies and funders can act on at scale. This Essay consolidates and builds on that emerging consensus to propose a Global Mobility Equity Framework comprising four interdependent and scalable domains: equitable convening, inclusive participation infrastructure, institutional accountability and distributed visa support systems. Drawing on documented cases spanning the International AIDS Conference, the World Health Summit, the Consortium of Universities for Global Health, and clinical training pathways for foreign medical graduates, we demonstrate that visa barriers impose cascading professional, financial and institutional costs that are systemic in pattern rather than exceptional in nature. We further show that virtual and hybrid conferencing, while promising, does not independently resolve underlying inequities related to connectivity, time zones, language access and the networking disparities that shape career trajectories. The framework we propose is not a restatement of the structural critique as that ground has been well covered. It is a citable, implementable operational response designed to guide coordinated action across global health\u2019s institutional landscape. Adopting this framework is a necessary condition for a more representative and effective global health system.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pgph.0006964","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,29]],"date-time":"2026-07-29T17:31:56Z","timestamp":1785346316000},"page":"e0006964","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1371\/journal.pgph.corrections_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Beyond paper walls: From diagnosis to action on visa inequities in global health"],"prefix":"10.1371","volume":"6","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0045-3873","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Shawna","family":"Novak","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Anahi","family":"Venzor Strader","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Peva","family":"Gbagornah","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Susana","family":"Orrego Villegas","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"340","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,29]]},"reference":[{"issue":"3","key":"pgph.0006964.ref001","article-title":"Visa restrictions: a structural determinant of global health that must be confronted head-on","volume":"6","author":"LE Bain","year":"2026","journal-title":"PLOS Glob Public Health"},{"issue":"1","key":"pgph.0006964.ref002","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1136\/bmjgh-2020-003455","article-title":"Conference equity in global health: a systematic review of factors impacting LMIC representation at global health conferences","volume":"6","author":"L Velin","year":"2021","journal-title":"BMJ Glob Health"},{"issue":"8","key":"pgph.0006964.ref003","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pgph.0002310","article-title":"Imagining a future in global health without visa and passport inequities","volume":"3","author":"S Bandara","year":"2023","journal-title":"PLOS Glob Public Health"},{"issue":"10491","key":"pgph.0006964.ref004","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1728","DOI":"10.1016\/S0140-6736(25)00757-3","article-title":"The Global North is increasingly unsafe for global health meetings","volume":"405","author":"S Bandara","year":"2025","journal-title":"Lancet"},{"key":"pgph.0006964.ref005","unstructured":"Rahman A. UK, Shengen states make millions off rejected visas. Dawn. 2024 Jun 11 [cited 2026 Jul 23]. Available from https:\/\/www.darn.com\/news\/1839140"},{"key":"pgph.0006964.ref006","unstructured":"The Royal Society. The borders of science: making UK visas work for short-term researcher mobility [Internet]. London: The Royal Society; 2023 Jul 17 [cited 2026 Jul 23]. Available from: https:\/\/royalsocietyorg\/topics-policy\/publications\/2023\/borders-of-science-shorter-term-researcher-mobility-visas\/"},{"key":"pgph.0006964.ref007","unstructured":"Presidents\u2019 Alliance on Higher Educaton and Immigration, Shorelight. An analysis of visa denials and itnernational student flows [Internet]. 2023 [cited 2026 Jul 23]. Available from: https:\/\/www.higheredimmigrationportal.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Shorelight-2324.pdf"},{"key":"pgph.0006964.ref008","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"78","DOI":"10.1136\/bmj.p78","article-title":"The uncomfortable truths about visa discrimination and global health conferences","volume":"380","author":"A Tsanni","year":"2023","journal-title":"BMJ"},{"key":"pgph.0006964.ref009","author":"Yale UNRAVEL Study","year":"2024"},{"key":"pgph.0006964.ref010","author":"London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine","year":"2018"},{"key":"pgph.0006964.ref011","author":"J Serebrin","year":"2022"},{"key":"pgph.0006964.ref012","author":"J Serebrin","year":"2022"},{"issue":"2","key":"pgph.0006964.ref013","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pgph.0001663","article-title":"From vaccine to visa apartheid, how anti-Blackness persists in global health","volume":"3","author":"C Kyobutungi","year":"2023","journal-title":"PLOS Glob Public Health"},{"issue":"4","key":"pgph.0006964.ref014","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"482","DOI":"10.1097\/ACM.0000000000002511","article-title":"Reconfiguring a one-way street: a position paper on why and how to improve equity in global physician training","volume":"94","author":"JC Hudspeth","year":"2019","journal-title":"Acad Med"},{"key":"pgph.0006964.ref015","author":"Lighthouse Reports","year":"2026"},{"key":"pgph.0006964.ref016","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"638025","DOI":"10.3389\/fmars.2021.638025","article-title":"Better for whom? Leveling the injustices of international conferences by moving online","volume":"8","author":"HJ Niner","year":"2021","journal-title":"Front Mar Sci"},{"issue":"4","key":"pgph.0006964.ref017","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"227","DOI":"10.5194\/gc-7-227-2024","article-title":"Planning virtual and hybrid events: steps to improve inclusion and accessibility","volume":"7","author":"AL Doran","year":"2024","journal-title":"Geosci Commun"},{"key":"pgph.0006964.ref018","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"902772","DOI":"10.3389\/fmars.2022.902772","article-title":"Hybrid conferences: opportunities, challenges and ways forward","volume":"9","author":"O Reshef","year":"2022","journal-title":"Front Mar Sci"},{"issue":"2","key":"pgph.0006964.ref019","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1136\/bmjgh-2023-014131","article-title":"Colonialism in the new digital health agenda","volume":"9","author":"S Sekalala","year":"2024","journal-title":"BMJ Global Health"},{"key":"pgph.0006964.ref020","author":"Campaigns in Global Health","year":"2024"},{"key":"pgph.0006964.ref021","author":"M Pai","year":"2024"},{"issue":"3","key":"pgph.0006964.ref022","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"329","DOI":"10.1097\/ACM.0000000000003473","article-title":"Decolonizing global health education: rethinking institutional partnerships and approaches","volume":"96","author":"QG Eichbaum","year":"2021","journal-title":"Acad Med"},{"issue":"10464","key":"pgph.0006964.ref023","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1711","DOI":"10.1016\/S0140-6736(24)02323-7","article-title":"Shifting power in global health will require leadership by the Global South and allyship by the Global North","volume":"404","author":"M Pai","year":"2024","journal-title":"Lancet"},{"key":"pgph.0006964.ref024"},{"issue":"5","key":"pgph.0006964.ref025","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1136\/bmjgh-2022-009231","article-title":"Envisioning sustainable and equitable World Health Assemblies","volume":"7","author":"P Khorsand","year":"2022","journal-title":"BMJ Glob Health"},{"key":"pgph.0006964.ref026","author":"M Pai","year":"2022"}],"container-title":["PLOS Global Public Health"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/dx.plos.org\/10.1371\/journal.pgph.0006964","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,29]],"date-time":"2026-07-29T17:31:59Z","timestamp":1785346319000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/dx.plos.org\/10.1371\/journal.pgph.0006964"}},"subtitle":[],"editor":[{"given":"Shashika","family":"Bandara","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"editor"}]}],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,29]]},"references-count":26,"journal-issue":{"issue":"7","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,29]]}},"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1371\/journal.pgph.0006964","relation":{},"ISSN":["2767-3375"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2767-3375","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,29]]}}}