Furthering Medical Tourism

Medical tourism (also called medical travel, health tourism or global healthcare) is a term initially coined by travel agencies and the mass media to describe the rapidly-growing practice of traveling across international borders to obtain health care. It also refers pejoratively to the practice of healthcare providers traveling internationally to deliver healthcareShaywitz, D.A., & Ausiello, D.A. (2002). Global Health: A Chance for Western Physicians to Give - and Receive. The American Journal of Medicine, 113, 354-357.Bezruchka, S. (2000). Medical Tourism as Medical Harm to the Third World: Why? For Whom? Wilderness and Environmental Medicine, 11, 77-78..

Services typically sought by travelers include elective procedures as well as complex specialized surgeries such as joint replacement (knee/hip), cardiac surgery, dental surgery, and cosmetic surgeries. However, virtually every type of health care, including psychiatry, alternative treatments, convalescent care and even burial services are available. As a practical matter, providers and customers commonly use informal channels of communication-connection-contract, and in such cases this tends to mean less regulatory or legal oversight to assure quality and less formal recourse to reimbursement or redress, if needed.

Over 50 countries have identified medical tourism as a national industry.Gahlinger, PM. The Medical Tourism Travel Guide: Your Complete Reference to Top-Quality, Low-Cost Dental, Cosmetic, Medical Care & Surgery Overseas. Sunrise River Press, 2008 However, accreditation and other measures of quality vary widely across the globe, and there are risks and ethical issues that make this method of accessing medical care controversial. Also, some destinations may become hazardous or even dangerous for medical tourists to contemplate.

In the context of global health, "medical tourism" is a pejorative because during such trips health care providers often practice outside of their areas of expertise or hold different (i.e., lower) standards of careRoberts, M. (2006). Duffle Bag Medicine. Journal of the American Medical Association, 295, 1491-1492.Pinto, A.D., & Upshur, R.E.G. (2009). Global Health Ethics for Students. Developing World Bioethics, 9, 1-10.. Greater numbers than ever before of student volunteers, health professions trainees, and researchers from resource-rich countries are working temporarily and anticipating future work in resource-starved areasJames, D. (1999). Going Global. The New Physician, 48, online. Accessed 7 May 2009. [http://www.amsa.org/tnp/articles/article.cfx?id=290].. This emphasizes the importance of understanding this other definitionJim Baraldi. [http://www.philly.com/inquirer/opinion/20090925_A_harm_in__medical_tourism_.html "A harm in 'medical tourism.' The poor need lasting efforts to improve global health, not feel-good field trips."] The Philadelphia Inquirer. September 25, 2009..