Global Trends in Health and Medical Tourism
Contents: Preface. 1. An introductory overview of health and medical tourism. 2. UN World Tourism Organization and trends in general global tourism. 3. Modern hospital facilities and procedures to be followed while undertaking medical tourism. 4. Towards understanding tourism in terms of service industry and analyzing various effects. 5. Health and medical tourism in India: an overview. 6. Towards following holiday package approach in running medical and health tourism in India. 7. Listing opportunities which exist in the areas of healthcare and related tourism in India. Appendices. Glossary. Index.
"Medical tourism is the act of travelling to other countries to obtain medical, dental, preventive and surgical care. With high rising costs of health care in the US, many people are not able to afford health insurance and cannot receive treatment for necessary or elective procedure. Traveling abroad costs 60-80 percent less than the same procedure in the US and includes the leisurely aspect of traveling in the foreign country.
This book provides readers with an introductory overview of health and medical tourism, besides dental tourism. Identification of related destinations, the involved risks and rewards with respect to medical travel is discussed in detail. An attempt is made towards understanding medical tourism in all its dimensions. The ways for identifying a hospital abroad for check-up have been suggested.
The book also gives some reflections on growth of medical tourism worldwide with an Indian perspective on future prospects of global medical tourism. The existing industry of medical tourism in North America, the health facilities and alternative healthcare in Barbados are described as case studies. This book also revisits the fact that doctors attitude and costs play vital roles in boosting medical tourism. Listing of opportunities which exist in the areas of healthcare and related tourism in India is one of the aims of this publication. In this regard, the issues have been highlighted include the role of the government, expenditure factors, primary services and state of affairs of healthcare service industry and related tourism activities in India."
