The York Management School, University of York, Heslington, York, United Kingdom.
Int J Health Serv. 2010;40(3):469-84. doi: 10.2190/HS.40.3.e.
Since the early 1990s, medical tourism, whereby individuals choose to travel across national borders or overseas to receive treatments, has been increasingly recognized in the United States and Asia. This article highlights the emergence of medical tourism in the European context. It examines the drivers for such developments and situates medical tourism within the broader context of health globalization and forms of patient mobility in the European Union. In outlining the developments of medical tourism in Europe, the authors distinguish between two types of medical tourist: the citizen and the consumer. The discussion explores the need for greater empirical research on medical tourism in Europe and argues that such research will contribute toward knowledge of patient mobility and the broader theorization of medical tourism. The authors make suggestions about the content of this research agenda, including understanding the development of medical tourist markets, the nature of choice, equity implications, the role of brokers and intermediaries, and general issues for health management.
自 20 世纪 90 年代初以来，医疗旅游（即个人选择跨国或海外旅行接受治疗）在美国和亚洲得到了越来越多的认可。本文重点介绍了医疗旅游在欧洲背景下的出现。它考察了这些发展的驱动因素，并将医疗旅游置于卫生全球化和欧盟范围内病人流动的形式的更广泛背景下。在概述欧洲医疗旅游的发展时，作者区分了两种类型的医疗游客：公民和消费者。讨论探讨了在欧洲进行更多医疗旅游实证研究的必要性，并认为这种研究将有助于了解病人的流动以及对医疗旅游的更广泛理论化。作者就这一研究议程的内容提出了建议，包括了解医疗旅游市场的发展、选择的性质、公平性影响、经纪人及中介机构的作用，以及卫生管理的一般问题。
