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GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES
Patients Without Borders: The Rise of Surgical Tourism
LOIS HAMLIN, DNurs, RN, FRCNA, FCN, Foundation Fellow ACORN
Whatever the name used for the practice, its emphasis is largely on patients. However, medical tourism also can include physicians and other health professionals traveling overseas to offer their services to local populations,3 often as volunteers. These professionals are sometimes referred to as voluntourists.8 In addition, medical students may undertake some of their training overseas. Both of these scenarios typically involve physicians or trainees from developed countries traveling to work in developing nations.8 However, an examination of these aspects of medical tourism is beyond the scope of this article; my focus is on patients travelling overseasfor elective surgery, which appears to be the fastest growing sector of this industry.5,9,10
THE DRIVERS OF MEDICAL TOURISM
There is nothing new about the idea of traveling to improve ones health; pilgrims have travelled to Lourdes and other shrines for centuries,5 andin the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the wealthy traveled to spa towns throughout Europe to take the waters.11 In the past 20 years, medical tourism, especially for elective surgery, has rapidly increased for various reasons. These include the development of a global economy, the establishment of international and bilateral trade agreements, expansion of the international travel industry,2,8,9 and the accessibility of information
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doi: 10.1016/j.aorn.2012.01.021
AORN, Inc., 2012 April 2012 Vol 95 No 4 AORN Journal 529
Medical tourism has been discussed previously in this column and elsewhere in the AORN Journal, but it seems
timely to revisit the topic. A good starting point is to consider what the term medical tourism means. One denition is travel outside of an individuals home region or country in pursuit of medical care that is more accessible, of higher quality, of lower cost, or some combination of these.1 Out-of-pocket expenses are typically met by the patient. The term excludes emergency treatment given to people who become ill when traveling overseas and foreign residents of destination countries.
A narrower description refers to medical tourism as the process whereby patients travel to countries other than their...