Medical tourism and policy implications for health systems

A new article in Globalization and Health looks at the impact of medical tourism on the health systems of Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore. Globalization and Health is an open access, peer-reviewed, online journal that provides an international forum for high quality original research, knowledge sharing and debate on the topic of globalization and its effects on health, both positive and negative.

The journal is affiliated with the London School of Economics (LSE Health). 'Medical tourism and policy implications for health systems: a conceptual framework from a comparative study of Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia' is by Nicola S Pocock and Kai Hong Phua.

The authors argue that medical tourism is a growing phenomenon with policy implications for health systems, particularly of destination countries. Private businesses and governments in Southeast Asia are promoting the medical tourism industry, but the potential impact on health systems, particularly in terms of equity in access and availability for local consumers, is unclear.

The article presents a conceptual framework that outlines the policy implications of medical tourism's growth for health systems, drawing on the cases of Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia, three regional hubs for medical tourism, via an extensive review of academic and grey literature. Variables for further analysis of the potential impact of medical tourism on health systems are also identified.

The framework provides a basis for empirical, in-country studies weighing the benefits and disadvantages of medical tourism for health systems. The policy implications described are of particular relevance for policymakers and industry practitioners in other Southeast Asian countries with similar health systems where governments have expressed interest in facilitating the growth of the medical tourist industry.

This article calls for a universal definition of medical tourism and medical tourists, as well as concerted data collection efforts, to be undertaken prior to any meaningful empirical analysis of medical tourism's impact on health systems.

Source = imtj