Medical sociology as a heuristic instrument for medical tourism and cross-border healthcare: Comment on "International patients on operation vacation - perspectives of patients travelling to Hungary for orthopedic treatments".

Tomas Mainil

doi:10.15171/ijhpm.2015.37

Abstract

In this commentary, we establish a relationship between medical sociology and the study of medical tourism and cross-border healthcare by introducing Ronald Andersen's behavioral model of healthcare use, and linking this model to the recent empirical study of Kovacs et al. on patients travelling to Hungary for orthopedic treatment. Finally, we plead for more measurement in the field of patient mobility.

Highlights

We establish a relationship between medical sociology and the study of medical tourism and cross-border healthcare by introducing Ronald Andersen’s behavioral model of healthcare use, and linking this model to the recent empirical study of Kovacs et al. on patients travelling to Hungary for orthopedic treatment
The authors shed a light on the decision-making behavior of the patients: 93% planned the treatment on their own, which could indicate that the role of a medical tourism facilitator in a European cross-border region setting is less logical or necessary
In establishing a relation between medical sociology and medical tourism/cross-border healthcare, we introduce the behavioral model of health services use of Ronald Andersen

Summary

Introduction

We establish a relationship between medical sociology and the study of medical tourism and cross-border healthcare by introducing Ronald Andersen’s behavioral model of healthcare use, and linking this model to the recent empirical study of Kovacs et al. Cross-border healthcare and medical tourism seem to build on the same foundations. In the Asian context, patient mobility is often framed as medical tourism and associated with market development.

Results

Conclusion