Top 7 Issues in Medical Tourism: Challenges, Knowledge Gaps, and Future Directions for Research and Policy Development

Abstract

Medical tourism is a general term that describes patients traveling to obtain health services. The growth of medical tourism is due to a broad range of motivators and increasingly, developing countries are seeking to capitalize on these flows and are linking medical care with actual tourist activities. This commercial linkage between healthcare and tourism is a rapidly developing and profitable industry that is attracting growing interest amongst health researchers. This article summarizes seven leading issues concerning medically-motivated travel that were identified by academic researchers during a November 2009 Symposium on the Implications of Medical Tourism for Canadian Health and Health Policy. These issues include emerging technologies, particular vulnerable populations, Canadian business ties to the industry, patient populations excluded from analysis, and comparative analyses between health service providers for medical travelers. This article aims to help guide researchers as they investigate ethical, legal, social, public health, and economic issues related to the growing medical tourism industry.

The Determinants of Medical Tourism Intentions: Applying the Theory of Planned Behavior

“…However, the majority of existing reports are in the form of news media (Economist, 2008;James, 2009), commentaries or editorials (Budiani-Saberi & Delmonico, 2008;Delmonico, 2009;Jacek, 2012), perspectives, briefs, or conceptual papers (Caballero-Danell & Mugomba, 2007;Heung, Kucukusta, & Song, 2010;Smith & Forgione, 2007), reviews (Behrmann & Smith, 2010;Caballero-Danell & Mugomba, 2007;Carrera & Bridges, 2006;Crooks et al, 2010;George, Henthorne, & Williams, 2010;Heung et al, 2010;Lunt & Carrera, 2010;Lunt et al, , 2012Pennings et al, 2009), and case studies (Kangas, 2010;Moghimehfar & Nasr-Esfahani, 2011;NaRanong & NaRanong, 2011;Schiano & Rhodes, 2010). Relatively few empirical studies have been reported (Blyth, 2010;Canales, Kasiske, & Rosenberg, 2006;Karuppan & Karuppan, 2010Pennings et al, 2009;Satjapot, Johnson, & Garman, 2011;Shenfield et al, 2010;Tsai et al, 2011).…”

Cooperation of Inbound and Outbound Medical Tourism Companies: A Review Article

“…Inbound refers to patients coming into a country; outbound refers to patients traveling out of a country. It can also involve travel within the borders of the country, i.e., intrabound or domestic (11,12). But, more commonly, the phrase "medical tourism" is used to describe long-distance travel to another country (13).…”

“…Some companies are in the medical tourism destination (inbound medical tourism companies [IMTC]); others are in the home country of medical tourist (outbound medical tourism companies [OMTC]); however, there are I/OMTC and intrabound MTC, but this article will not discuss them (8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18). IMTC can easily lead international patients to appropriate medical and traveling services, due to their familiarity with the features and the culture of the destination country and easy access to service providers (10)(11)(12). However, to find health travelers, these companies have to face problems that are more complicated than providing services and require high cost and a lot of time (10)(11)(12)(13).…”

“…IMTC can easily lead international patients to appropriate medical and traveling services, due to their familiarity with the features and the culture of the destination country and easy access to service providers (10)(11)(12). However, to find health travelers, these companies have to face problems that are more complicated than providing services and require high cost and a lot of time (10)(11)(12)(13). Therefore, they have to find patients from other countries (or marketing) to be able to succeed.…”

Epistemic Communities, Human Rights, and the Global Diffusion of Legislation against the Organ Trade

“…However, as an important transnational actor with broad global authority, the epistemic community has not been reviewed in detail. Accordingly, this paperpresents a history of Britons, and Americans travel to countries such as India, Argentina, Cuba, and Chile [48,49]. Promising "first world health care at third world prices" [48], several Latin American, African, Southeast Asian, and Middle Eastern countries have become regional transplant tourism hubs.…”