Challenges Involved in Medical Tourism

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. Medical tourism as an emerging field of business as well as an opportunity of connecting not only the demand and supply sides in the field of health, but a facilitator of professional capacity and cultural exchange platform has resulted in extensive level of people movement beyond geographical and traditional boundaries in recent years. Medical travel is challenging our traditional ways of thinking about public health and we are confronted with a wide array of questions that still need to be answered. Research about the topic is still in its infancy and more studies are urgently needed. The most extensive research efforts have so far been undertaken from a commercial perspective to explore the size and nature of the market. Given the considerable implications for public health, future research is needed to further our understanding of medical travel with the objective of improving public health.