Growing numbers of people are going abroad in pursuit of healthcare, and the social, political and economic significance of these flows at a range of levels cannot be ignored. This special issue brings together papers from a key... more
Growing numbers of people are going abroad in pursuit of healthcare, and the social, political and economic significance of these flows at a range of levels cannot be ignored. This special issue brings together papers from a key international conference held in June 2013, Transnational Healthcare: a Cross-border Symposium – an event that was itself transnational, with hosting shared by institutions in two countries: first in Wageningen, The Netherlands, with delegates then travelling to Leeds, UK, for further presentations and discussion. The aim of this symposium was consider the impacts of ‘medical tourism’ in a range of different contexts, and it brought together scholars involved in cutting-edge empirical and conceptual studies of the transnational pursuit and provision of medical care. It included findings from small-scale as well as large, multi-site research projects. In this introduction, we outline the articles’ main themes and highlight priorities and agendas for the vital shared project of empirically and conceptually investigating the multi-scalar relational geographies -- from the macro/national to the local/embodied – that are currently transforming policies, economies, professions and patient experiences of what some scholars suggest might more appropriately be called ‘international medical travel’ (Kangas 2007) or ‘transnational healthcare practices’ (Stan, this issue) instead of ‘medical tourism’. In recognition of the array of initiatives around the world that challenge and move beyond attempts at self-sufficiency in healthcare at the national level, this special issue draws attention to the breadth of regional capacity-building, forms of governance, relations and identities forged through both high-profile, long-distance pursuits of ‘medical tourists’ and more ‘everyday’ cross-border and intra-regional health-motivated flows (Ormond 2013b). The diversity of case studies presented in the special issue is intended to reflect the many forms of movement that together constitute transnational healthcare practices (though there remains much work to fully map these practices). In the remainder of this introduction, we draw out some of the themes and issues raised in the papers that prompt us to rethink ‘medical tourism’.
Research Interests: Medical Tourism, Regional development, Migration Studies, Global Health Governance, Medical Travel, and 4 moreHealth, Wellness & Medicall tourism, spas, Cosmetic and Reconstructive Plastic Surgery, Medical Tourism, Cosmetic Surgery Studies, Transnational migration and caregiving, and Transnational Health
Within European cross-border health care, recent studies have identified several types of international patients. Within the Anglo-Saxon setting, the specific terminology of medical tourism is used. The analytical purpose of the paper is... more
Within European cross-border health care, recent studies have identified several types of international patients. Within the Anglo-Saxon setting, the specific terminology of medical tourism is used. The analytical purpose of the paper is to resolve this semantic difference by suggesting an alternative terminology, 'transnational health care' that is understood as a 'context-controlled and coordinated network of health services'. For demand-driven trans-border access seekers and cross-border access searchers, there is a need to opt for regional health-policy strategies. For supply-driven sending context actors and receiving context actors, there would be organizational benefits to these strategies. Applying the terminology of trans-border access seekers, cross-border access searchers, sending context and receiving context actors results in a transnational patient mobility typology of twelve types of international patients, based on the criteria of geographical distance, cultural distance and searching efforts, public/private/no cover and private/public provision of health services. Finally, the normative purpose of the paper is to encourage the use of this terminology to promote a policy route for transnational health regions. It is suggested that the development of transnational health regions, each with their own medical and supportive service characteristics, could enhance governmental context-controlled decision power in applying sustainable health destination management.
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Tourism, Culture & Communication, Vol. 10, pp. 5975 ... Printed in the USA. All rights reserved. ... NARRATIVE ANALYSIS AS A TOOL FOR CONTEXTUAL ... *Centre for Cross-cultural Understanding, Breda University of Applied Sciences... more
Tourism, Culture & Communication, Vol. 10, pp. 5975 ... Printed in the USA. All rights reserved. ... NARRATIVE ANALYSIS AS A TOOL FOR CONTEXTUAL ... *Centre for Cross-cultural Understanding, Breda University of Applied Sciences (NHTV), Breda, Nederlands. ...
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Hospitals need to determine if an international patient department is a necessity to communicate with and manage international patients. A benchmarking instrument was created to assess the level of professionalism in managing... more
Hospitals need to determine if an international patient department is a necessity to communicate with and manage international patients. A benchmarking instrument was created to assess the level of professionalism in managing international patients, including reviewing and validating processes by two university hospitals, professionals, and an expert panel. First, the differences between the hospitals depended on the will of the hospital to engage in such activities. Second, the differences depended on the embedding national context in which the hospital was situated. Further validation revealed the importance of other supportive services, such as cultural sensitivity and language. Finally, the microlevel phenomenon of international patient departments is placed within a macrolevel transnational health region development scheme. This study focused on the supply of services with respect to international patient departments, which could be related to efficiency and sustainability on a...
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Purpose Non-discursive practices such as the economy and political constellations have always caused shifts in history. However, in the network society of today, these shifts have become omnipresent. Globalization of health and medical... more
Purpose Non-discursive practices such as the economy and political constellations have always caused shifts in history. However, in the network society of today, these shifts have become omnipresent. Globalization of health and medical tourism have created a shift or rupture ...
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... In their view, medical tourism also constitutes a new hybrid - that is, as a hybrid medical paradigm that seems to be appearing within the performative and productive world of tourism. You are viewing sample pages from CABI's... more
... In their view, medical tourism also constitutes a new hybrid - that is, as a hybrid medical paradigm that seems to be appearing within the performative and productive world of tourism. You are viewing sample pages from CABI's life sciences databases on CAB Direct. ...