An Overview of Medical Tourism
Medical tourism, perhaps a late twentieth century phenomenon is said to be making a huge impact across the world in many countries, especially in developing world. According to the Medical Tourism Association in the United States, the term “Medical Tourism” is where people who live in one country travel to another country to receive medical, dental and surgical care while at the same time, receiving equal to or greater care that they could have received at their own country. Many people across the globe are taking to the wheels to various destinations for their medical needs owing to critical reasons like affordability, better access to care at a higher level of quality, etc. “Medical Tourism” can broadly be classified into “International Medical Tourism” and “Domestic Medical Tourism”. While the primary focus across the world is on the former, the latter is gaining significance in many countries as well. Again, the Medical Tourism Association defines “Domestic Medical Tourism” as the phenomenon where people travel within their country to different cities, regions or states to receive medical, dental and surgical care. Predominantly, the reasons why people undertake “Domestic Medical Tourism” are the same as those for the “International Medical Tourism”, perhaps the “affordability” factor might be a bit more enhanced as domestic travel is always considered to be lesser expensive than making an international travel.
Moghavvemi et.al., (2017) reiterate and drive home the important point that this “Medical tourism” has attracted significant attention in the recent years. Thanks to the ever-growing population of the upper-income countries people undertake travel to the lower and the middle-income countries in search of better healthcare and state-of-the-art robust infrastructure (Behrmann & Smith, 2010; Keckley, 2008). Of course it should be remembered that the present day is a day wherein the internet and the social media is on an all-time boom. Moghavvemi et.al., (2017) also recognize this fact by undermining the significance of internet as an increasingly important source of health and healthcare information. They further iterate the point that this has contributed a significant level in the development and shaping up of this “Medical Tourism” Industry. Interestingly many researchers (For e.g. Hohm & Snyder, 2015; Huang & Chang, 2012; Lunt, Hardey & Mannion, 2010, etc.) have also echoed on the same point in their own respective ways. Von Knoop et al., 2010 also adds an important insight to this discussion that patients especially in the United States, use the internet as a source not only to gather and obtain information on general health but also to obtain information on the specific types of medical services that are available in select hospitals both at home as well as overseas. This important point is again echoed by innumerable researchers in this domain in the likes of Grigoroudis et al., 2008, Taylor et al., 2005, etc. To add more to this, even the renowned Medical Tourism Association in 2009 gives more clarity with some worthwhile statistics. It reported that around 49% of the American medical tourists that were surveyed, learned about medical tourism via the internet and more than 73% of them sought specific information online with regards to various aspects and dimensions of care abroad. Thus from all the above discussed points, it becomes seemingly evident that medical tourism as an industry is fast catching up, thanks to a variety of factors, especially the internet.
Travelling to different domestic destinations and overseas for obtaining quality medical treatment has long been existing now for several decades and Connell (2013) reiterates this same viewpoint too. In fact, Connell (2013) talks extensively about Harley Street in London (UK) and how was it popular amongst tourists from all over the world. However the recent trend has been a bit different. Many contemporary researchers in this domain are of the opinion that a form of “reverse globalization” is currently taking place, wherein patients from the more developed countries flock towards the seemingly lesser developed countries in search of quality medical treatment. Reasons are aplenty such as cost, access, service among the prominent ones. Moreover, Connell (2013) also emphasizes heavily that Medical Tourism has started to grow explosively especially after the late 1990s with thousands of patients making their way into countries such as India, Thailand and Mexico in search of quality medical care, which might be too expensive, inadequate and/or unavailable in their home countries. In fact, many researchers (Eg. Bookman & Bookman, 2007; Connell, 2006, 2008; Reisman, 2010) have subsequently documented the emergence of Asian, few European and Latin American countries as potential medical tourism destinations for the world, as their economies have been shaped up and diversified on existing tourism industries and healthcare systems. Connell (2011.a) also makes a point here that an increasing number of countries from these regions are better marketing themselves to the world as excellent Medical Tourist destinations. Taking advantage of this, hundreds of medical tourism companies have become travel agents, where they try to broker between tourists and hospitals, thereby facilitating their travel and stay.