Abstract
Medical tourism occupies different spaces within national policy frameworks depending on which side of the transnational paradigm countries belong to, and how they seek to leverage it towards their developmental goals. This article draws attention to this policy divide in transnational healthcare through a comparative bibliometric review of policy research on medical tourism in select source (Canada, United States and United Kingdom) and destination countries (Mexico, India, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore), using a systematic search of the Web of Science (WoS) database and review of grey literature. We assess cross-national differences in policy and policy research on medical tourism against contextual policy landscapes and challenges, and examine the convergence between research and policy. Our findings indicate major disparities in development agendas and national policy concerns, both between and among source and destination countries. Further, we find that research on medical tourism does not always address prevailing policy challenges, just as the policy discourse oftentimes neglects relevant policy research on the subject. Based on our review, we highlight the limited application of theoretical policy paradigms in current medical tourism research and make the case for a comparative policy research agenda for the field.
Highlights
IntroductionLong wait times, tightening eligibility restrictions, narrowing service offerings, fiscal and human resource shortages, and changing demographic profiles and disease burdens have made it difficult for governments to effectively meet the healthcare needs of citizens
Health systems around the world are experiencing common challenges
A Boolean search of the Web of Science (WoS) Core Collection was performed between October and November 2018 to sequentially identify policy-related publications on medical tourism in the selected countries for all years till date
Summary
Long wait times, tightening eligibility restrictions, narrowing service offerings, fiscal and human resource shortages, and changing demographic profiles and disease burdens have made it difficult for governments to effectively meet the healthcare needs of citizens. Medical tourism has emerged as one of many solutions, made possible by transnational mobility of Virani et al Globalization and Health (2020) 16:37 tourism in their messaging, to leverage their reputations as leisure destinations [2]. The extent to which destination countries have benefited has hinged on their ability to integrate global technologies and knowhow with unique domestic advantages. Medical tourism is an important action arena for policymaking, necessitated not just by the need to encourage the industry, and to minimize its socioeconomic discontents, and to address its ethical and legal challenges, both in countries from which medical tourists originate, and in those they seek healthcare [8–10]
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