Medical Tourism in the Context of National Health Systems` Institutional Characteristics
Abstract
Medical tourism (MT) is a modern type of medical services outside the state of residence. It links medicine and tourism. Moreover, its availability combined with economic feasibility is the main incentive for seeking medical care outside the place of residence and is an important issue for national health systems. A noticeable MT contribution to the country`s economy is possible if there is a well-thought-out infrastructure with introduction of certification procedure, a universal service and marketing system, an adequate response to the offer of additional tourism services and regulation of conditions for systematic cooperation with private intermediaries. However, the absence of interstate standards for this type of medical care leads to significant ethical, political, epidemiological and economic problems and makes it difficult to assess its professional quality. This necessitates the creation of a legal framework that takes into account the rights and responsibilities of both the medical services consumer and the host country.
References
[1] Adams, K., Snyder, J., Crooks, V.A. and Berry, N.S. 2018. A critical examination of empowerment discourse in medical tourism: the case of the dental tourism industry in Los Algodones, Mexico. Global Health, 14(1): 70. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12992-018-0392-3
[2] Baker, D. 2014. Should unnecessary harmful nontherapeutic cosmetic surgery be criminalised. New Criminal Law Review, 17(4): 587–630.
[3] Cesario, S.K. 2018. Implications of Medical Tourism. Nurs Womens Health, 22(3): 269 - 273. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nwh.2018.03.008
[4] Chan, S. 2017. Current and emerging global themes in the bioethics of regenerative medicine: the tangled web of stem cell translation. Regen Med., 12(7): 839 - 851. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2217/rme-2017-0065
[5] Cohen, I.G. 2015. Patient with passports: medical tourism, law and ethics. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
[6] Connell, J. 2016. Reducing the scale? From global images to border crossings in medical tourism. Global Networks, 16: 531–550. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/glob.12136
[7] Crooks, V.A., Kingsbury, P., Snyder, J., and Johnston, R. 2010. What is known about the patient’s experience of medical tourism? A scoping review. BMC Health Serv Res, 10:266.
[8] Crush, J., and Chikanda, A. 2014. South-south medical tourism and the quest for health in southern Africa. Soc Sci Med., 124: 313 – 320. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2014.06.025
[9] Davison, S.P., Hayes, K.D., LaBove, G. and Shaffer, P. 2018. The Price of Medical Tourism: The Legal Implications of Surgery Abroad. Plast Reconstr Surg. 142(4): 1075 - 1080. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1097/PRS.0000000000004816
[10] Dawson, J. 2016. Medical Tourism Industry Valued at $100B; Poised for 25% Year-Over-Year Growth by 2025. Available at: https://www.medicaltourismindex.com/2016-medical-tourism-industry-valuation/
[11] Fares, B., Labonté, R., and Runnels, V. 2015. Briefing 2 — Should Canada’s hospitals open their doors to medical tourists? Health care in Canada: an economic growth engine. The Conference Board of Canada. Available at: www.conferenceboard.ca/e-library/abstract.aspx?did=7003
[12] Foley, B.M., Haglin, J.M., Tanzer, J.R., and Eltorai, A.E.M. 2019. Patient care without borders: a systematic review of medical and surgical tourism. J Travel Med., 26(6), taz049. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1093/jtm/taz049
[13] Freyer, W., and Kim, B.S. 2014. Medical tourism and travel - an interdisciplinary approach. Gesundheitswesen, 76(1): 65-8. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0033-1343439
[14] Gaines, J., et al. 2018. Notes from the Field: nontuberculous Mycobacteria infections in U.S. Medical tourists associated with plastic surgery - Dominican Republic, 2017. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep, 67: 369–70.
[15] Gill, J., et al. 2011. Opportunities to deter transplant tourism exist before referral for transplantation and during the workup and management of transplant candidates. Kidney Int., 79(9): 1026 - 1031. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/ki.2010.540
[16] Gill, J.S. et al. 2010. Policy Statement of Canadian Society of Transplantation and Canadian Society of Nephrology on Organ Trafficking and Transplant Tourism. Transplantation, 90: 817–820.
[17] Griffiths, D., Mullock, A. 2018. Cosmetic Surgery: Regulatory Challenges in a Global Beauty Marke. Health Care Anal., 26(3): 220- 234. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1007/s10728-017-0339-5
[18] Henton, D. 2011. Mexico a Dental Mecca: Saskatoon Star Phoenix.
[19] Horton, S, Cole, S. 2011. Medical returns: seeking health care in Mexico. Soc Sci Med., 72: 1846 – 1852. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2011.03.035
[20] Hui, S.H., Noonan, L., and Chavada, R. 2015. Post liposuction Mycobacterium abscessus surgical site infection in a returned medical tourist complicated by a paradoxical reaction during treatment. Infect Dis Rep., 7: 6304.
[21] Jackson, C, Snyder, J, Crooks, V.A., Lavergne, M.R. 2018. "I didn't have to prove to anybody that I was a good candidate": a case study framing international bariatric tourism by Canadians as circumvention tourism. BMC Health Serv Res., 18(1): 573. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-018-3385-2
[22] Khawaja, T., et al. 2017. Patients hospitalized abroad as importers of multiresistant bacteria—a cross-sectional study. Clin Microbiol Infect, 23: 673.e1–e8.
[23] Kim, D.H., et al. 2016. Financial costs and patients' perceptions of medical tourism in bariatric surgery. an J Surg., 59(1): 59-61.
[24] Latham, M. 2008. Medical law review, 16(3): 437–457. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1093/medlaw/fwn019
[25] Lee, JC1, et al. 2018. Financial Implications of Atypical Mycobacterial Infections After Cosmetic Tourism: Is It Worth the Risk? Ann Plast Surg., 81(3): 269 - 273. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1097/SAP.0000000000001563
[26] Lunt, N., Carrera, P. 2010. Medical tourism: assessing the evidence on treatment abroad. Maturitas; 66: 27–32.
[27] Lunt, N., et al. 2014. Implications for the NHS of inward and outward medical tourism: a policy and economic analysis using literature review and mixed methods approaches. Southampton (UK): NIHR Journals Library.
[28] Meghani, Z. 2010. A robust, particularist ethical assessment of medical tourism. Developing World Bioethics, 11: 16–29. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-8847.2010.00282.x
[29] Ormond, M. 2011. Shifting subjects of healthcare: placing ‘medical tourism’ in the context of Malaysian domestic health-care reform. Asia Pacific Viewpoint, 52: 247 – 259. DOI:10.1111/j.1467-8373.2011.01457.x
[30] Pereira, R.T., Malone, C.M., Flaherty, G.T. 2018. Aesthetic journeys: a review of cosmetic surgery tourism. J Travel Med., 25(1). DOI:https://doi.org/10.1093/jtm/tay042
[31] Pitts-Taylor, V. 2005. Becoming-being a cosmetic surgery patient: Semantic instability and the intersubjective self. Studies in Gender and Sexuality, 10(3): 122.
[32] Sharma, P., Vazquez Guillamet, L.J., Miljkovic, G. 2016. Atypical Mycobacterial infection after abdominoplasty overseas: a case report and literature review. Case Rep. Infect. Dis., 3642567.
[33] Smith, R.D. 2004. Foreign direct investment and trade in health services: a review of the literature. Soc Sci Med., 59: 2313–2323.
[34] Swarbrooke, J., and Horner, S. 2007. Consumer behaviour in tourism. London: Routledge.
[35] Turner, L. 2009. Dental tourism: issues surrounding cross-border travel for dental care. J Can Dent Assoc., 75: 2.
[36] Van Beers, B.C. 2015. Is Europe 'giving in to baby markets?' Reproductive tourism in Europe and the gradual erosion of existing legal limits to reproductive markets. Med Law Rev. 23(1): 103-134. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1093/medlaw/fwu016
[37] Whittaker, A., and Leng, C.H. 2016. ‘Flexible bio-citizenship’ and international medical travel: transnational mobilities for care in Asia. Int Sociol., 31: 286–304. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1177/0268580916629623
[38] *** ISAPS Statistics 27 June 2017 [press release]. Aesthetic Plastic Journal 2017.
[39] *** Surgeon TASoP 2016 Plastic Surgery Statistics. 2016
[2] Baker, D. 2014. Should unnecessary harmful nontherapeutic cosmetic surgery be criminalised. New Criminal Law Review, 17(4): 587–630.
[3] Cesario, S.K. 2018. Implications of Medical Tourism. Nurs Womens Health, 22(3): 269 - 273. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nwh.2018.03.008
[4] Chan, S. 2017. Current and emerging global themes in the bioethics of regenerative medicine: the tangled web of stem cell translation. Regen Med., 12(7): 839 - 851. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2217/rme-2017-0065
[5] Cohen, I.G. 2015. Patient with passports: medical tourism, law and ethics. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
[6] Connell, J. 2016. Reducing the scale? From global images to border crossings in medical tourism. Global Networks, 16: 531–550. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/glob.12136
[7] Crooks, V.A., Kingsbury, P., Snyder, J., and Johnston, R. 2010. What is known about the patient’s experience of medical tourism? A scoping review. BMC Health Serv Res, 10:266.
[8] Crush, J., and Chikanda, A. 2014. South-south medical tourism and the quest for health in southern Africa. Soc Sci Med., 124: 313 – 320. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2014.06.025
[9] Davison, S.P., Hayes, K.D., LaBove, G. and Shaffer, P. 2018. The Price of Medical Tourism: The Legal Implications of Surgery Abroad. Plast Reconstr Surg. 142(4): 1075 - 1080. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1097/PRS.0000000000004816
[10] Dawson, J. 2016. Medical Tourism Industry Valued at $100B; Poised for 25% Year-Over-Year Growth by 2025. Available at: https://www.medicaltourismindex.com/2016-medical-tourism-industry-valuation/
[11] Fares, B., Labonté, R., and Runnels, V. 2015. Briefing 2 — Should Canada’s hospitals open their doors to medical tourists? Health care in Canada: an economic growth engine. The Conference Board of Canada. Available at: www.conferenceboard.ca/e-library/abstract.aspx?did=7003
[12] Foley, B.M., Haglin, J.M., Tanzer, J.R., and Eltorai, A.E.M. 2019. Patient care without borders: a systematic review of medical and surgical tourism. J Travel Med., 26(6), taz049. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1093/jtm/taz049
[13] Freyer, W., and Kim, B.S. 2014. Medical tourism and travel - an interdisciplinary approach. Gesundheitswesen, 76(1): 65-8. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0033-1343439
[14] Gaines, J., et al. 2018. Notes from the Field: nontuberculous Mycobacteria infections in U.S. Medical tourists associated with plastic surgery - Dominican Republic, 2017. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep, 67: 369–70.
[15] Gill, J., et al. 2011. Opportunities to deter transplant tourism exist before referral for transplantation and during the workup and management of transplant candidates. Kidney Int., 79(9): 1026 - 1031. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/ki.2010.540
[16] Gill, J.S. et al. 2010. Policy Statement of Canadian Society of Transplantation and Canadian Society of Nephrology on Organ Trafficking and Transplant Tourism. Transplantation, 90: 817–820.
[17] Griffiths, D., Mullock, A. 2018. Cosmetic Surgery: Regulatory Challenges in a Global Beauty Marke. Health Care Anal., 26(3): 220- 234. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1007/s10728-017-0339-5
[18] Henton, D. 2011. Mexico a Dental Mecca: Saskatoon Star Phoenix.
[19] Horton, S, Cole, S. 2011. Medical returns: seeking health care in Mexico. Soc Sci Med., 72: 1846 – 1852. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2011.03.035
[20] Hui, S.H., Noonan, L., and Chavada, R. 2015. Post liposuction Mycobacterium abscessus surgical site infection in a returned medical tourist complicated by a paradoxical reaction during treatment. Infect Dis Rep., 7: 6304.
[21] Jackson, C, Snyder, J, Crooks, V.A., Lavergne, M.R. 2018. "I didn't have to prove to anybody that I was a good candidate": a case study framing international bariatric tourism by Canadians as circumvention tourism. BMC Health Serv Res., 18(1): 573. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-018-3385-2
[22] Khawaja, T., et al. 2017. Patients hospitalized abroad as importers of multiresistant bacteria—a cross-sectional study. Clin Microbiol Infect, 23: 673.e1–e8.
[23] Kim, D.H., et al. 2016. Financial costs and patients' perceptions of medical tourism in bariatric surgery. an J Surg., 59(1): 59-61.
[24] Latham, M. 2008. Medical law review, 16(3): 437–457. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1093/medlaw/fwn019
[25] Lee, JC1, et al. 2018. Financial Implications of Atypical Mycobacterial Infections After Cosmetic Tourism: Is It Worth the Risk? Ann Plast Surg., 81(3): 269 - 273. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1097/SAP.0000000000001563
[26] Lunt, N., Carrera, P. 2010. Medical tourism: assessing the evidence on treatment abroad. Maturitas; 66: 27–32.
[27] Lunt, N., et al. 2014. Implications for the NHS of inward and outward medical tourism: a policy and economic analysis using literature review and mixed methods approaches. Southampton (UK): NIHR Journals Library.
[28] Meghani, Z. 2010. A robust, particularist ethical assessment of medical tourism. Developing World Bioethics, 11: 16–29. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-8847.2010.00282.x
[29] Ormond, M. 2011. Shifting subjects of healthcare: placing ‘medical tourism’ in the context of Malaysian domestic health-care reform. Asia Pacific Viewpoint, 52: 247 – 259. DOI:10.1111/j.1467-8373.2011.01457.x
[30] Pereira, R.T., Malone, C.M., Flaherty, G.T. 2018. Aesthetic journeys: a review of cosmetic surgery tourism. J Travel Med., 25(1). DOI:https://doi.org/10.1093/jtm/tay042
[31] Pitts-Taylor, V. 2005. Becoming-being a cosmetic surgery patient: Semantic instability and the intersubjective self. Studies in Gender and Sexuality, 10(3): 122.
[32] Sharma, P., Vazquez Guillamet, L.J., Miljkovic, G. 2016. Atypical Mycobacterial infection after abdominoplasty overseas: a case report and literature review. Case Rep. Infect. Dis., 3642567.
[33] Smith, R.D. 2004. Foreign direct investment and trade in health services: a review of the literature. Soc Sci Med., 59: 2313–2323.
[34] Swarbrooke, J., and Horner, S. 2007. Consumer behaviour in tourism. London: Routledge.
[35] Turner, L. 2009. Dental tourism: issues surrounding cross-border travel for dental care. J Can Dent Assoc., 75: 2.
[36] Van Beers, B.C. 2015. Is Europe 'giving in to baby markets?' Reproductive tourism in Europe and the gradual erosion of existing legal limits to reproductive markets. Med Law Rev. 23(1): 103-134. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1093/medlaw/fwu016
[37] Whittaker, A., and Leng, C.H. 2016. ‘Flexible bio-citizenship’ and international medical travel: transnational mobilities for care in Asia. Int Sociol., 31: 286–304. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1177/0268580916629623
[38] *** ISAPS Statistics 27 June 2017 [press release]. Aesthetic Plastic Journal 2017.
[39] *** Surgeon TASoP 2016 Plastic Surgery Statistics. 2016
Published
2020-04-27
How to Cite
OSADCHUK, M. A.; OSADCHUK, A. M.; TRUSHIN, M. V..
Medical Tourism in the Context of National Health Systems` Institutional Characteristics.
Journal of Environmental Management and Tourism, [S.l.], v. 11, n. 2, p. 229-235, apr. 2020.
ISSN 2068-7729.
Available at: <https://journals.aserspublishing.eu/jemt/article/view/4645>. Date accessed: 23 nov. 2024.
doi: https://doi.org/10.14505//jemt.v11.2(42).01.
Section
Article
Copyright© 2024 The Author(s). Published by ASERS Publishing 2024. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of CC-BY 4.0 license.