Abstract
The wealthy citizens of developing countries have frequently traveled to the
U.S. and Western Europe to seek the expertise and gain access to advanced
technology available at leading medical centers. Recently, a trend categorized
as "medical tourism" has emerged, wherein citizens of highly-developed
countries choose to bypass care offered in their own communities and travel to
developed areas of the world to receive a wide variety of medical services in
order to save money. Medical tourism is fundamentally different from the
traditional model of international "medical travel," where patients generally
journey from less-developed nations to major medical centers in
highly-developed countries for medical treatment that is unavailable in their
own communities. This TriMark Publications report focuses on the medical
tourism trend that will have an increasing impact on the healthcare landscape
in industrialized and developing countries around the world. The term "medical
tourism" does not accurately reflect the reality of the patient' s situation or
the advanced medical care provided in these destinations. Nevertheless, it
provides an unambiguous way of differentiating the recent phenomenon of
medical tourism from the traditional model of international medical travel.
This phenomenon is driven by marketplace forces and occurs outside of the
purview and control of the organized healthcare system. Medical tourism
presents important concerns and challenges as well as potential opportunities.
This analysis will examine the international locales that are experiencing a
dramatic increase in medical tourism, with particular emphasis on Asia,
Eastern Europe and Latin America.
| 
View Cart
