Sociology Of Medical Tourism

Tourism is a global phenomenon. Because it is an important, even vital, source of income for many countries in the world. Its importance was recognized in the Manila Declaration on World Tourism of 1980 as “an activity essential to the life of nations because of its direct effects on the social, cultural, educational, and economic sectors of national societies and on their international relations and its indirect effects on the development of allied industries like transport, hotel etc.”.Medical Tourism is one form of tourisms and which means a journey that patients take from one country to another country to get cost effective and efficient medical treatment, followed by a great vacation at some of the most beautiful locations. India is one of the major players in this industry. Currently, it hosts about 1.27 million medical tourists from industrialized countries like UK, USA and Canada and from its neighboring countries such as Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and China. Its foreign exchange earnings from medical tourism are estimated to be around US $ 1.8 billion. The estimated number of medial tourists in India in 2015 would be between 1.21 million and 2.78 million. The estimated revenue would lie between US $ 1719 million to US $ 3964 million in 2015. Medical tourism industry in India has potential to contribute around 25 percent to the country’s Gross Domestic Product in the next five years, if fully tapped.The present book titled Sociology of Medical Tourism highlights various dimensions, identifies different issues and suggests further development of this multimillion dollar industry in India in an in-depth manner. Medical Tourism is one of the most important trust areas which emerge in the past century and because of its multiple level of use it also become subject matter of research in various subjects including Sociology. It is hoped that this book, with its wide-ranging and in-depth content, critical insights and detailed analysis of the concept, prove to be immensely resourceful to the readers. I also assure that this book should be proven an informative referral for those who are working and doing research in the field of medical tourism.

Seminar paper from the year 2017 in the subject Sociology - Medicine and Health, grade: 1,7, Bielefeld University (Fakultät für Soziologie), course: Medical Sociology, language: English, abstract: This seminar paper concentrates on the topic of medical tourism. What is medical tourism? Since when does it exist? What kinds of medical tourism are the most famous ones? What kind of impact does it have on the quality of medical treatments or a state’s economy? Those questions will be answered in this seminar paper. In the first part, I will concentrate on the definition on medical tourism. Later, I will focus on different kinds of medical tourism regarding to the definition, for example surrogate parenthood, plastic surgery, and abortion. Afterwards, I will name negative and positive impacts of medical tourism in a short summary.

From exotic spa treatments to euthanasia, this book examines the background and social context of medical tourism—the practice of traveling for health care. This work also documents how this industry is reshaping the face of medicine worldwide for individuals, local communities, and national health care systems. Medical Tourism: A Reference Handbook provides an accessible overview of the state of medical tourism, written from a balanced, unbiased perspective. The authors provide relevant social context for this controversial topic, discussing the state of extremely limited research data on medical tourism; the ethical issues involved, such as traveling to have a black-market organ transplanted; and the significant impact of medical tourism on health care systems—that of the United States, and those of the destination countries. The book highlights many contemporary problems, controversies, and implications of medical tourism both for individuals and health care systems, and presents thought-provoking potential solutions. The topic of medical tourism is also addressed against the backdrop of current healthcare reforms in the United States. Readers can reference a wealth of additional material on medical tourism, ranging from original documents to extensive directories of selected organizations and resources.

The phenomenon of transnational health care has grown rapidly over recent years and this book provides a comprehensive landscape of diverse research communities' attempts to capture its implications for existing bodies of knowledge in selected aspects of medicine, medical ethics, health policy and management, and tourism studies.

This book provides a unique and innovative perspective on the controversial phenomenon of ‘stem cell tourism’. A growing number of patients are embarking on stem cell treatments that are clinically unproven and yet available in clinics and hospitals around the world. The authors offer a cutting-edge multi-dimensional perspective on this complex and rapidly changing phenomenon, including an analysis of the experiences of those who have undertaken or have contemplated undertaking a stem cell treatment, as well as examination of the views of those who undertake research or advise on or provide stem cell treatments. Developing the concept of ‘the political economy of hope’, and referencing case studies of the stem cell treatment market in China, Germany, and Australia, this book argues for a reframing of ‘stem cell tourism’ to understand why patients and families pursue these treatments and whether authorities’ concerns are justified and whether their responses are appropriate and proportionate to the alleged risks.

How do we understand health in relation to society? What role do social processes, structures and culture play in shaping our experiences of health and illness? How do we understand medicine and healthcare within a sociological framework? Drawing on international literature and examples, this new edition of Key Concepts in Medical Sociology: · Systematically explains the concepts that have preoccupied medical sociology from its inception, and which have shaped the field as it exists today. · Includes new entries, such as pandemics and epidemics, the environment, intersectionality, pharmaceuticalization, medical tourism and sexuality. · Begins each entry with a definition of the concept then examines its origins, development, strengths and weaknesses, and concludes with suggested further reading for independent learning. Key Concepts in Medical Sociology is essential reading for students in medical sociology as well as those undertaking professional training in health-related disciplines.

Looking at health and health care in a new way, this book examines health risks and benefits as encountered 'on the move' rather than focusing on the risks and benefits incurred at fixed locations. The provision and utilization of health care is also investigated, as produced/delivered and consumed/accessed in mobile settings. Engaging with the contemporary concern with 'mobilities' this book covers many forms of movement and flow, including movements of people, disease, information and health care. The issues and problems which are considered - whether re-emerging infections, displaced persons, or the 'risks' of globalised travel - are of current and ongoing concern. Drawing on three main disciplines, geography, sociology, and epidemiology, author Tony Gatrell makes strong connections between these areas of inquiry, drawing on (for example) social theorising, geographical concepts, and epidemiological methods and data. The book will be of interest to the growing number of geographers working on the geography of health, along with social scientists involved in the mobilities 'turn'. More broadly, as issues of global public health that invariably involve the movements of people, goods, viruses and information continue to hit the headlines, the book is both timely and of policy relevance.

By taking an ethnographic approach to medical travel, this important book uses critical perspectives to understand inequalities in healthcare access and delivery, including gender, class and ethnicity, and explore how these are negotiated. In this key text Vindrola- Padros presents a comprehensive overview of the work carried out on this topic to date, highlights the gaps that remain and suggests strategies for enriching medical travel research in the future. Drawing from the author’s research on internal medical travel to access pediatric oncology treatment in Buenos Aires, Argentina and other research from across the globe, this book presents four dimensions of medical travel that can be explored through a critical (im)mobilities lens: infrastructures, differential mobility empowerments, culture and affective dimensions of care and travel. Vindrola-Padros encourages the reader to critically explore processes of medical travel by considering the structures that shape travel, individual capacities for travel, the role emotions play in decisions and experiences of movement and service delivery and the ways in which culture(s) influence both travel and care. This book will be important reading for scholars across medical sociology, anthropology and critical health studies.