Medical Tourism in Developing Countries

8 ● Medical Tourism in Developing Countrieswriting about it is akin to shooting a moving target; because of its suddenappearance on the global stage, there has been little scholarly research uponwhich to build. Indeed, the tourism literature has largely ignored it.Surprisingly, a recent book on niche tourism that explores geotourism,genealogy tourism, photographic tourism, and small-ship cruising does noteven mention medical tourism. 47 Another book on health paid attention tomedical problems tourists encounter when traveling, as well as those theytransmit to home and host regions, yet only one chapter dealt with medicaltourism. 48 Medical literature has also ignored it, as public health issues aremore pressing. Economists studying developing countries focus either onthe benefits of tourism or on the costs of health disasters. Economistsfocused on Western countries address the domestic market for health care,especially the rising costs. To be sure, there is a growing literature on outsourcingin general and on outsourcing in medicine in particular. However,this research does not involve outsourcing the doctor but rather some aspectof health care such as reading X-rays and filing reports. To the extent thatthere is interest in overseas medical care, it is from the perspective of themore developed countries, exploring the effects of outsourcing on domesticmedical care, costs, markets, et cetera. Finally, a review of books in printon medical tourism yielded only a few guides to surgery destinations acrossthe globe and a memoir of a surgery experience in India. 49As a result, most information on contemporary medical tourism indeveloping countries comes from government policy documents, media,and international organizations. Since there is so much private activity, feasibilitystudies are commissioned by industries and are conducted by consultingfirms. Such studies increasingly explore the potential of medicaltourism (for example, a recent comprehensive health study commissionedby a consortium of Indian industries dedicated an entire section to thepotential of medical tourism 50 ).This book strives to fill the gap in the academic literature that shouldnot exist given the increasing importance of medical tourism. It representsa pioneering effort to bring together the available information and place itin a theoretical framework. With that goal in mind, the nature of thisresearch is described below.First and foremost, this is a book about economic growth and developmentin what was formerly called “the third world.” It focuses on selectcountries of Asia, Africa, and South America. It is not a book about medicine;it is not even about health care. One author is a development economist,not a physician, not even a health economist; the other is an attorneywith a specific interest in intellectual property. As such, the book is notintended to serve as a guide for prospective patients nor is it a practical