Place, positionality, and priorities: experts' views on women's health at the Mexico-US border.

Improving health care in the Mexican-US transborder region presents challenges not only of harmonization of systems but differences in values and expectations for policies. We explore the contrasting and overlapping views of health experts in both countries regarding the ways in which geographic location, scale, and professional roles shape their notions of the region, priorities for women's health, and interpretations of the socio-cultural concept of gender in relation to health. The study is based on interviews with legislators, health administrators, health advocates, and researchers on each side of the border. We suggest ways in which more nuanced perspectives might be brought to bear in the policy discourses on the region.