Systematic Review of Researches on Medical Tourism

oleh: Masoud Ferdosi, Alireza Jabbari, Mahmood Keyvanara, Zahra Agharahimi

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: Vesnu Publications 2012-03-01

Deskripsi

Introduction: Medical tourism is a complex subject for studying. The aim of this study was to do systematically review, describe, and analyze medical tourism articles from all over the world. Methods: In order to perform this systematic review, the databases of Institute for Scientific Information (ISI), Science Direct, Emerald, Oxford, Magiran, and Scientific Information Database (SID) websites were searched in 2000-2011. The retrieved articles were collected and classified using descriptive statistics and content analysis. Results: Among the total 28 studied articles, 11 original articles, 3 case studies in Mexico, India, Hungary, Germany, and Iran, and 14 narrative reviews were found. The articles mainly focused on the definition of medical tourism, medical tourists' motivations and development factors, ethical issues in medical tourism, the impact of medical tourism on health system, and medical tourism marketing. Conclusion: Our findings indicated similar definition of medical tourism in all articles despite various motivations of medical tourists. Nevertheless, there are a wide range of interests and consequences in studies, as more studies of developing countries showed the benefits of medical tourism while more developed countries pointed out the consequences of medical tourism. Ultimately, the subject of medical tourism varied according to policies and programs in each country. Therefore, comprehensive and detailed research is required to clarify the issue within the country. Keywords: Medical Tourism; Systematic Review; Tourism.