Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Health Services Administration, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Faculty of Management and Medical Information, Isfahan, Iran

2 Student Research Committee

Abstract

Introduction: Medical tourism for any study area is complex. Materials and Methods: Using
full articles from other databases, Institute for Scientific Information (ISI), Science Direct,
Emerald, Oxford, Magiran, and Scientific Information Database (SID), to examine systematically
published articles about medical tourism in the interval 2000-2011 paid. Articles were obtained
using descriptive statistics and content analysis categories were analyzed. Results: Among the
28 articles reviewed, 11 cases were a kind of research articles, three cases were case studies
in Mexico, India, Hungary, Germany, and Iran, and 14 were case studies, review documents
and data were passed. The main topics of study included the definition of medical tourism,
medical tourists’ motivation and development of medical tourism, ethical issues in medical
tourism, and impact on health and medical tourism marketing. Conclusion: The findings
indicate the definition of medical tourism in various articles, and medical tourists are motivated.
However, most studies indicate the benefits of medical tourism in developing countries and
more developed countries reflect the consequences of medical tourism.

Keywords

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