Authors
1 Department of Health Services Management, School of Health Management and Information Sciences, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
2 Department of Business Management, Faculty of Management and Accounting, College of Farabi, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Nowadays, medical tourism reports impressive growth in terms of number of
persons, income, and number of countries involved in cross‑border flows. It refers to people traveling
abroad (from home to a target country) to obtain medical treatment. The present study aimed to
identify the themes and codes of the medical tourism business in Iran.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: We searched international databases (such as PubMed, Scopus,
Embase, and Web of Science) and Iranian bibliography thesaurus and repositories (namely, Scientific
Information Database and Magiran) using keywords such as medical tourism, international medical
travel, and medical tourism business in the English and Persian literature, published between January
2000 and December 2019, identified with no restriction on the type of the studies. The data were
analyzed based on the content analysis method.
RESULTS: Out of 1054 articles, 14 were finally selected. In the end, eight themes of the medical
tourism business including competitive pricing, safety and security, information and communication
technology, labor market and human resources, structure management, leading the way in medical
tourism, infrastructure, and exchange with the international world were identified which on the whole
contain 45 codes. Most of the articles were quantitative. Four of the themes (competitive price, labor
market and human resources, structure management, and infrastructure) were most frequent and
of the highest importance.
CONCLUSION: The themes and codes identified in this study helps companies and individuals who
want to work in the field of medical tourism. According to this study, all 8 themes and 45 codes are
of high value, but still, some themes are of higher value than others and special attention should
be paid to them.
Keywords
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