Cross border movement of patients and health workers is often portrayed negatively but Johanna Hanefeld and Richard Smith discuss how it can benefit both source and recipient countries as long as the ...risks are properly managed
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the evolution of medical tourism (MT) research from a longitudinal perspective (period 1931–2016). A co-word analysis was applied to themes found in published ...research listed in the Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus database services.
The results reveal six clusters of themes: a) issues regarding ethical implications, trust and accreditation; b) health, wellness, spa tourism and service quality; c) health-related issues, medical treatments and tourism; d) “sensitive” practices in MT; e) medical tourism destinations and marketing; and f) globalization, policies and the effect on international patients. This study is one of the first attempts to use a bibliometric approach and co-word analysis so as to offer powerful insight into the conceptual structure of MT research from academic literature and to visualize all the underlying and interconnected subfields. It also provides a guide to researchers by improving the understanding of the current state of the art and predicting the direction of future research.
•A co-word analysis was applied to elucidate the thematic evolution of medical tourism (MT) research from 1931 to 2016.•Research on medical tourism has broadened its focus since 1987.•Topics such as assisted reproduction and fertility tourism will be of interest for MT research in a near future.
This article aims to identify the main legal and ethical issues around international surrogacy. Owing to the legal diversity and ethical background of such a globalized practice, a review of the key ...existing literature on these two matters has been identified and analyzed. The article also identifies and analyzes the most significant legal solutions provided by supranational jurisdictions when dealing with cases of international surrogacy. The scope of the article includes the efforts to reach a minimum legal framework at the international level, with the aim not to standardize but to provide common legal solutions to those travelling abroad to have a child by means of surrogacy.
Medical tourism (MT) is a valuable component of many national service economies. Understanding the marketing and recruitment of MT patients is therefore an important consideration for MT providers. ...Research shows that word of mouth (WoM) remains the most important acquisition channel in this sector. Yet, there is only a limited understanding of antecedent factors behind a patient referral. We develop a framework for WoM, finding support for tourism factors, service quality and perceived value as key antecedents on WoM referrals. We further extend the MT literature by integrating a novel perspective on value creation that surfaces the experiences of frontline service providers for the first time. This paper incorporates two complementary studies, one with a focus on value creation, the other on perceived value. By combing the two in a mixed-methods approach, we emphasise the role of service delivery on WoM. Several implications can be drawn from the study's findings.
Medical tourism is the latest trend happening in many countries of the world where tourists in need of medical treatments from the developed countries approach the developing countries imparting ...treatments at par with the quality of their home countries. Among the countries practicing medical tourism, India is occupying one of the top positions with respect to the quality treatments as most of the states have recognized its significance. This study aims at studying the customer perception of medical tourism in the union territory of Puducherry. The units of the study are the international medical tourists who sought medical treatments in the private healthcare hospitals of Puducherry. The methodology used for the study is descriptive, analytical and inferential. Factor Analysis, T-test and ANOVA are the tools utilized for analyzing the primary data. The study reveals that the facilities provided to foreign patients are customer oriented. The satisfaction level of patients regarding the staff interaction, facilities and amenities and treatment are high. But, there is some need of improvement in the case of formalities and tourism part. The efficiency of the doctors, their personal touch, their communication skills, the facilities and amenities of the hospitals contributes to the cutting edge experience by the medical tourists. One important drawback is the lack of international accreditation which needs utmost ground work. The study finally suggests strategies for motivating the medical tourists undertaking healthcare treatments in Puducherry.
Abstract Medical tourism is commonly perceived and popularly depicted as an economic issue, both at the system and individual levels. The decision to engage in medical tourism, however, is more ...complex, driven by patients’ unmet need, the nature of services sought and the manner by which treatment is accessed. In order to beneficially employ the opportunities medical tourism offers, and address and contain possible threats and harms, an informed decision is crucial. This paper aims to enhance the current knowledge on medical tourism by isolating the focal content of the decisions that patients make. Based on the existing literature, it proposes a sequential decision-making process in opting for or against medical care abroad, and engaging in medical tourism, including considerations of the required treatments, location of treatment, and quality and safety issues attendant to seeking care. Accordingly, it comments on the imperative of access to health information and the current regulatory environment which impact on this increasingly popular and complex form of accessing and providing medical care.
This study focuses on diasporic medical tourism (DMT), an offshoot of migration-led tourism and medical tourism. There has been growing recognition of the significance of a diasporic dimension of ...medical tourism worldwide, yet little is known about these travellers, especially quantitatively. This paper examines the antecedents and behavioural intention of the DMT by applying the extended Theory of Planned Behaviour. A cross-sectional survey was conducted in three European countries (Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg) among the Polish diaspora (N=1,288), which constitutes one of the largest migrant populations in Europe. The results analysed via PLS-SEM demonstrated that the model explained 53 % of the variance (R²= 0.527, Q²= 0.392), indicating a good model fit. Constructs of Attitude (β = 0.329), Subjective Norms (β = 0.277), Perceived Behavioural Control (β = 0.112), and Past Behaviour (β = 0.302) were all statistically significant. The caring/affective/trusting relationship with doctors, familiarity with the system, second opinion, encouragement/recommendation from referents, and facilitating factors influenced the decisions to undertake the DMT. ‘Committed’ and ‘Contended’ travellers accounted for 76% of all surveyed diasporic medical travellers, indicating the significant potential of those ‘hidden’ medical travellers. Diasporic medical tourism was compared to foreign medical tourism. This study provides theoretical/practical implications and contributes to the research on medical tourism, diaspora tourism and the interrelation between tourism and migration, specifically in the European context.
Transnational commercial surrogacy represents a form of medical tourism undertaken by intended parents who seek to hire women in other countries, increasingly often in the global South, as ...surrogates. While much of the scholarly literature focuses on the conditions of surrogacy within host countries, such as India, there has been limited analysis of transnational surrogacy focused upon origin countries. In this article, I build upon the scholarship that explores the impact of host country structures on transnational surrogacy, with special attention to the significance of Canadian citizenship policy through analysis of legislation and policy vis-à-vis transnational commercial surrogacy. The Canadian case demonstrates clear contradictions between the legislation and policy that is enacted domestically to prohibit commercial surrogacy within Canada and legislation and policy that implicitly sanctions commercial surrogacy through the straightforward provision of citizenship for children born of such arrangements abroad. The ethical underpinnings of Canada's domestic prohibition of commercial surrogacy, which is presumed to exploit women and children and to impede gender equality, are violated in Canada's bureaucratic willingness to accept children born of transnational commercial surrogacy as citizens. Thus, the ethical discourses apply only to Canadian citizens within Canadian geography. The failure of the Canadian government to hold Canadian citizens who participate in transnational commercial surrogacy to the normative imperatives that prohibit the practice within the country, or to undertake a more nuanced, and necessarily controversial, discussion of commercial surrogacy reinforces transnational disparities in terms of whose bodies may be commodified as a measure of gendered inequality.
Medical tourism has witnessed a phenomenal developed pace in recent years, but academic efforts continue to center on a western context and fail to shed light on other emerging medical tourism ...destinations. This study adopts a hybrid review approach to map out the evolution of Chinese medical tourism studies. A total of 183 articles published in both Chinese and international journals from 2000 to 2020 have been collected to delineate the evolution of Chinese medical tourism research in different dimensions (e.g., publication year, published journals, etc.); analyze the popular research topics of this domain under different disciplinary lens and further identify the research gaps. Findings suggest that existing studies are marketing-oriented and lack robust underpinning of empirical work with appropriate theories. Future research agenda for both researchers and practioners are provided in terms of the facilitation of different stakeholders' cooperation, understanding of diaspora medical tourists, and the development of traditional Chinese medicine.
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