Form Of Medical Tourism Research Articles

Pharmacy tourism and reimport of medical products as a form of ensuring the availability of medicines

The article examines the features of the development of pharmacy tourism as a form of medical tourism and the reimport of medicines that ensure their availability in conditions of dysfunctionality of national health systems in ensuring the right of patients to medical care. The conclusion is made that pharmacy tourism contributes to compensating for the high cost of medicines in the country of residence, simplifying the organizational and regulatory system for obtaining the right to purchase medicines; ensures the availability of drugs in their physical absence in the distribution system.

Ethnocultural Aspects of Improving the Tourist Support of Medical Tourism

The subject of the study is the main and background institutional factors of medical tourism. It is proved that the background factors are, among other things, a complex of ethno-cultural components, the inclusion of which in the practice of the phenomenon can significantly increase the attractiveness of the host territory. Special attention is paid to such a factor as the ethno-cultural preparation of a medical tourist to stay in a different environment in terms of social interaction. The importance of the proposed approach in all types and forms of medical tourism is emphasized: health/medical, inbound, outbound, domestic (taking into account the polyethnicity of our country). The conducted sociological measurements (focus group discussions, mass survey) showed that such work with patients is not carried out. Health and wellness practices include the interaction of two social groups – the patient and the medical staff. In the case of medical tourism, the second of the groups is differentiated into two subgroups – medical personnel and specialists of the tourism industry. It is established that there is no unified scheme for ensuring the process at the level of collegial interaction of these two subgroups at all. The novelty of the research consists in actualizing this contradiction and substantiating the expediency of ethno-cultural preparation of a medical tourist to stay in a different environment in terms of social interaction in the context of multiculturalism. The author of the article comes to the conclusion that it is necessary to create an expert formation at the regional level, which could ensure the complexity of the interaction of both subgroups on the basis of public-private partnership and achieve a more capacious inclusion of the ethnocultural potential of the territory in the medical product. This poses the task of additional training of tourist specialists specifically for medical tourism - to work with patients in the direction of familiarizing them with the ethnocultural features of the receiving locus and with variants of models of interaction between a doctor and a patient.

The Flaw in Formalist Accounts of Circumvention Tourism.

Circumvention tourism is a form of medical tourism that occurs when individuals travel abroad to receive treatments that are a prohibited in their home county but permitted in a destination country. This paper explores this question: Should individuals be punished by their home countries for engaging in circumvention tourism? Guido Pennings, Richard Huxtable, and I. Glenn Cohen have all argued for what I call "formalist accounts" of circumvention tourism. That is, they try to show that certain types of circumvention tourism should or should not be punished in principle. Against them, I show that questions about circumvention tourism's punishability cannot be answered in the abstract. Whether individuals should be punished depends too much on the prima facie morality of the treatments being performed and the prohibitions being circumvented.

An Assessment of Competitive Factors in Medical Tourism

Increasing globalization of the healthcare sector indicates that there are new opportunities for emerging markets to take a bigger share from the whole healthcare industry. This is realized in the form of medical tourism where people prefer to travel to different destinations to receive medical treatments and services. Medical tourists prefer to travel for several reasons like low cost, high quality care or shorter waiting periods. The industry is growing rapidly and the annual expenditure is estimated to be around US$ 30 billion at the end of 2019. The challenging amount of expenditure whets the appetite of the countries and competitiveness becomes crucial to take more market share in this respect. Therefore the factors that build up competitiveness is identified and assessed thoroughly. This paper makes a literature review on the subject and recommends a New research opportunity for Turkey in this field.

What does the development of medical tourism in Barbados hold for health equity? an exploratory qualitative case study

BackgroundAlthough the global growth of privatized health care services in the form of medical tourism appears to generate economic benefits, there is debate about medical tourism’s impacts on health equity in countries that receive medical tourists. Studies of the processes of economic globalization in relation to social determinants of health suggest that medical tourism’s impacts on health equity can be both direct and indirect. Barbados, a small Caribbean nation which has universal public health care, private sector health care and a strong tourism industry, is interested in developing an enhanced medical tourism sector. In order to appreciate Barbadians’ understanding of how a medical tourism industry might impact health equity.MethodsWe conducted 50 individual and small-group interviews in Barbados with stakeholders including government officials, business and health professionals. The interviews were coded and analyzed deductively using the schedule’s questions, and inductively for novel findings, and discussed by the authors.ResultsThe findings suggest that in spite of Barbados’ universal health care and strong population health indicators, there is expressed concern for medical tourism’s impact on health equity. Informants pointed to the direct ways in which the domestic population might access more health care through medical tourism and how privately-provided medical tourism in Barbados could provide health benefits indirectly to the Barbadian populations. At the same time, they cautioned that these benefits may not materialize. For example, the transfer of public resources — health workers, money, infrastructure and equipment — to the private sector to support medical tourism with little to no return to government revenues could result in health inequity through reductions in access to and availability of health care for residents.ConclusionsIn clarifying the direct and indirect pathways by which medical tourism can impact health equity, these findings have implications for health system stakeholders and decision-makers in Barbados and other countries attempting both to build a medical tourism industry and to protect health equity.

What's Missing? Discussing Stem Cell Translational Research in Educational Information on Stem Cell “Tourism”

Stem cell tourism is a growing industry in which patients pursue unproven stem cell therapies for a wide variety of illnesses and conditions. It is a challenging market to regulate due to a number of factors including its international, online, direct-to-consumer approach. Calls to provide education and information to patients, their families, physicians, and the general public about the risks associated with stem cell tourism are mounting. Initial studies examining the perceptions of patients who have pursued stem cell tourism indicate many are highly critical of the research and regulatory systems in their home countries and believe them to be stagnant and unresponsive to patient needs. We suggest that educational material should include an explanation of the translational research process, in addition to other aspects of stem cell tourism, as one means to help promote greater understanding and, ideally, curb patient demand for unproven stem cell interventions. The material provided must stress that strong scientific research is required in order for therapies to be safe and have a greater chance at being effective. Through an analysis of educational material on stem cell tourism and translational stem cell research from patient groups and scientific societies, we describe essential elements that should be conveyed in educational material provided to patients. Although we support the broad dissemination of educational material on stem cell translational research, we also acknowledge that education may simply not be enough to engender patient and public trust in domestic research and regulatory systems. However, promoting patient autonomy by providing good quality information to patients so they can make better informed decisions is valuable in itself, irrespective of whether it serves as an effective deterrent of stem cell tourism.

STEM CELL TOURISM AND FUTURE STEM CELL TOURISTS: POLICY AND ETHICAL IMPLICATIONS

Stem cell tourism is a small but growing part of the thriving global medical tourism marketplace. Much stem cell research remains at the experimental stage, with clinical trials still uncommon. However, there are over 700 clinics estimated to be operating in mostly developing countries--from Costa Rica and Argentina to China, India and Russia--that have lured many patients, mostly from industrialized countries, driven by desperation and hope, which in turn continue to fuel the growth of such tourism. While much research has focused on such dimensions as the promotions that allow such businesses to make their services known, media coverage, some patient research, and regulatory conditions for developing country clinics, little attention has been paid to the non-affected members of the general population, the future potential users of such services. This empirical study based on five focus group discussions with a diverse group of healthy adults in a Canadian city, explored participant views of patients who use stem cell tourism services, the likelihood they would avail themselves of such services if they were to suffer similar illnesses, and the conditions under which they might do so, and the impact that admonitions and advice from international expert bodies might have on their decisions. Our findings suggest that these healthy adults are sympathetic to the drivers of hope and desperation, and, despite cautions about research limitations, may seek such treatments themselves under similar conditions. These findings are discussed in the context of the policy and ethical issues raised by this form of medical tourism.

Medical Tourism and the Libyan National Health Services

Medical Tourism and the Libyan National Health Services