Medical tourism - International Conference, Call For Paper ...

Mugomba and Caballero-Danell (2006) expressed that the market description is based on an analysis
made by the medical tourism reality, consisted of what services operators offer, how countries market
their destinations and package then with medical treatments, the social issues that have arisen and the
effects of the absence of a legal framework to keep up with the development of the medical tourism
niche market. This analysis also explains how infrastructure in medical tourism destinations are
changing in order to host tourists that are also patients by giving special attention to the safety and
technological requirements, among other things, in an effort to compete against medical institutions in
various regions for the medical tourist’s disposable income.
2.4 The trend of medical tourism concept in the world
The concept of medical tourism or health travel in the world was mooted in 1997, after Asian
economic crises. The concept of Health Tourism, Medical Tourism, Medical Travel and Medical
Outsourcing are the same. All of these concepts define as traveling abroad to receive health care and
treatment. In 1990 many factors in different countries such as Asian countries led to the growth of
medical tourism in the long term will continue. According Jabbari, the trend concept of medical tourism
from 1997 to 2007 has shown below:
1997 --- Health tourism
1997-2001 --- Transition
2001-2007 --- Medical tourism
2006-2007--- Medical outsourcing
The term “outsourcing” is defined as “a practice used by different companies to reduce costs by
transferring portions of work to outside suppliers rather than completing it internally”. So, medical
outsourcing which is also commonly known as medical tourism is the practice of seeking health care
abroad. As successful outcomes of medical tourism become more evident, demand is likely to increase
further. Western insurance companies might encourage overseas treatment to reduce their own costs. A
hospital in Kolkata which is in West India has signed an agreement with the British insurance company,
BUPA (Connell, 2005). Moreover, some larger Indian companies have been in negotiations with the
NHS about outsourcing the treatment of British patients to India Connell (2005).
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