Global Access to Health Care and Well-Being: A Place for Policy and Science

Frontiers in Public Health

Ladislav ZáliÅ¡¹ 

关键词: medical travel;    global health;    health-care access;    well-being;    health policy;    measurement;    health services;    health economics;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpubh.2016.00129

学科分类：卫生学

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

In contrast with medical tourism, which broadly describes the movement of individuals for non-urgent and unnecessary treatments or recreational and leisure purposes such as cosmetic surgeries or spa visits (1), medical travel explicitly refers to patients crossing national borders with the purpose of receiving treatment that has been determined as essential to maintaining quality of life by a health professional, but may not need to be performed urgently (2). While medical travel offers potential economic gains as well as increased access to health care, it also poses notable risks to the well-being of the patient, which if disregarded could undermine the benefits that patients seek by traveling for medical care. We provide evidence that psychosocial factors such as stress, communication, and social support are integral to understanding the experiences of medical travelers and should be included in the evaluation of treatment outcomes and the development of policies regulating medical travel. We outline several key risks to well-being posed by medical travel, offer preliminary considerations for measuring well-being in outcome studies, and conclude with recommendations for incorporating well-being provisions into medical travel policies.

【 授权许可】

CC BY