What Do We Know About Medical Tourism? A Review of the Literature With Discussion of Its Implications for the UK National Health Service as an Example of a Public Health Care System

Hanefeld, Johanna; Smith, Richard; Horsfall, Daniel; Lunt, Neil

doi:10.1111/jtm.12147

Cited by 108 publications

(97 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…From this perspective, further investigation of the experiences of paid caregivers in medical tourism is also warranted, including both medical and nonmedical caregivers (e.g., coordinators, translators, cleaning staff, drivers). In addition, medical tourism provides a key example of marketization in the provision of care, as destinations compete to attract consumers of medical services (Connell, 2013;Hanefeld et al, 2013;Lunt et al, 2014). Research on the trade in global health services has highlighted the ethical and equity impacts of medical tourism in destination countries (Meghani, 2010;Cohen, 2012;Chen and Flood, 2013;Turner, 2013).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Medical tourists are individuals who travel abroad with the intention of accessing private medical outside the context of referral from their home health care system (Hopkins et al, 2010;Hanefeld et al, 2013). To date, reliable quantitative data about medical tourism are limited (Connell, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These authors emphasize two factors in their typology: the patient motivations and types of funding that drive patient mobility. Hanefeld et al (2014) highlighted how medical tourism is not just a single phenomenon, nothing that different types of travel (e.g., fertility travel, diaspora travel, dental tourism, cosmetic tourism) are guided by different patient motivations and have different impacts on destination countries. In this paper we are not focused on the impacts of medical tourism on a particular destination country or patient group but, instead, we shed light onto a relatively silent and invisible stakeholder group: the friends and family members who accompany medical tourists abroad.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Ethics of care in medical tourism: Informal caregivers' narratives of responsibility, vulnerability and mutuality

2015

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This study examines the experiences of informal caregivers in medical tourism through an ethics of care lens. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 20 Canadians who had accompanied their friends or family members abroad for surgery, asking questions that dealt with their experiences prior to, during and after travel. Thematic analysis revealed three themes central to an ethics of care: responsibility, vulnerability and mutuality. Ethics of care theorists have highlighted how care has been historically devalued. We posit that medical tourism reproduces dominant narratives about care in a novel care landscape. Informal care goes unaccounted for by the industry, as it occurs in largely private spaces at a geographic distance from the home countries of medical tourists.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Ethics of care in medical tourism: Informal caregivers' narratives of responsibility, vulnerability and mutuality

2015

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“…58,59 Despite developing strategic alliances among hospitals and healthcare centers, the inability of many healthcare systems to cope with the increased demand often leads to poor healthcare services, high costs, and long waiting lists. 60,61,62,63,64 With the decrease in cross-border communication through the Internet (e.g., websites, emails) and cheaper air travel, 65 reported that healthcare and health treatments will be the world's largest industry while tourism will become the world's second largest industry by 2022. Harker and Egan 77 indicated that the scope, approaches, and applications of relationship marketing should be examined closely in order to understand the impact of relationship on the medical tourism industry.…”

Section: Research In Medical Tourism and Relationship Marketingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Examining the Effectiveness of Relationship Marketing Strategies on Medical Tourism

Lai¹,

Chen²,

Lin³

2016

ITMR

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Medical tourism is one of the fastest-growing industries in the world as many patients are looking to access healthcare services that are not available to them in their home countries. Many hospitals and healthcare centers are now offering numerous products and services in order to fully reap the benefits from it. However, little research which examines the effects of relationship marketing on the medical tourism exists. Hence, the aims of this study are to: (1) examine the relationship between the relationship marketing strategies and the medical tourism industry; and (2) help medical tourism operators to identify some of the key issues that exist within the industry. In-depth interviews were conducted with ten senior Taiwanese tour guides who had extensive experience in dealing with the medical tourism industry. The results indicate that relationship marketing was one of the crucial factors which had an impact on the willingness of tour guides to make necessary travel arrangements for medical tourists. The environment of health examination center, the ability of its doctors to diagnose a patient's condition, and the professional image of its doctors could also affect the effectiveness of the relationship marketing on medical tourism as well as the efforts in arranging a follow-up visit to the health examination center. The findings can provide senior executives of health examination centers and travel agencies with a more realistic insight in dealing with issues and challenges arising from the medical tourism.

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“…The legal aspects of this activity are not entirely clear; neither relevant medical study in the international scientific literature can be found. Some aspects of these patients, such as organ transplants, surrogacy or commodification involve transcendental international legal and ethical challenges [1][2][3][4][5][6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perioperative Care of Tourist-Patients

Whizar-Lugo¹

2015

JACCOA

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Medical tourism is an ancient activity that was recently reactivated. It is a multidisciplinary complex matter that involves governments and private health care as well as lay people interested in facilitating this activity. The beginning of the XXI century has enabled this phenomenon and medical tourists intentionally travel from their hometown to a different countries to receive medical care. This growing international phenomenon has multiple legal, ethical, political, economic and medical facets. Minimal literature exists on this topic, including legal, ethics, cost, quality, postoperative care and complications for medical tourists. Anesthesia in these patients is a challenge that has not been properly investigated; it has many important aspects such as suitable pre-anesthetic communication, characteristics of other races with a wide range of illness and pharmacological response, physiological changes during prolonged trips like DVT/PE, the possibility of surgical-anesthesia complications and many more. Numerous questions remain unanswered and there is a need to review our anesthesia techniques.

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What Do We Know About Medical Tourism? A Review of the Literature With Discussion of Its Implications for the UK National Health Service as an Example of a Public Health Care System

Cited by 108 publications

References 47 publications

Ethics of care in medical tourism: Informal caregivers' narratives of responsibility, vulnerability and mutuality

Ethics of care in medical tourism: Informal caregivers' narratives of responsibility, vulnerability and mutuality

Examining the Effectiveness of Relationship Marketing Strategies on Medical Tourism

Perioperative Care of Tourist-Patients

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