Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2024 Apr;31(2):18-29.
doi: 10.21315/mjms2024.31.2.3. Epub 2024 Apr 23.

Healthcare Facilities and Medical Tourism Across the World: A Bibliometric Analysis

Abdul Latief  1   2 , Maria Ulfa  1   3
Affiliations
Review

Healthcare Facilities and Medical Tourism Across the World: A Bibliometric Analysis

Abdul Latief et al. Malays J Med Sci. 2024 Apr.

Abstract

This study aimed to review the literature on healthcare facilities and medical tourism from a range of nations that have established medical tourism sectors and assess the effect of healthcare facilities on medical tourism. A bibliometric study of the Scopus database was carried out by using the search terms '(Facility AND of AND healthcare) AND TITLE-ABS-KEY (health AND tourism) AND medical tourism' for the years 2012-2022. A qualitative evaluation of the literature was then performed to find and locate 92 articles. VOSviewer and NVivo 12 Plus were employed for data analysis. The findings indicated that the following trending subject keywords were used during the period in question: health (rate 1.97), medicine (rate 1.91), tourism (rate 1.70), care (rate 0.83), facilities (rate 0.64) and healthcare (rate 0.61). Furthermore, this research identified four distinct clusters: i) medical tourism, ii) healthcare quality, iii) healthcare system and iv) health services. The study found that healthcare facilities, as actors that have a role in the development of medical tourism, have not been sufficiently explored, even though there is evidence that they play a role in the growth of the sector. This result is in line with Heung's argument, which makes the same point.

Keywords: bibliometric analysis; development; healthcare facility; hospital; medical tourism.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest: None.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Steps in selecting articles
Figure 2
Figure 2
Number of publications by year of healthcare facility in medical tourism
Figure 3
Figure 3
Scientific productions by country of a review healthcare facility in medical tourism
Figure 4
Figure 4
The keywords trends of a review healthcare facilities on medical tourism worldwide by year
Figure 5
Figure 5
Network visualisation by keywords using VOSviewer of healthcare facilities in medical tourism
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Farrukh M, Shahzad IA, Sajid M, Sheikh MF, Alam I. Revisiting the intention to travel framework in the perspective of medical tourism: the role of eWord-of-mouth and destination image. Int J Healthc Manag. 2022;15(1):28–35. doi: 10.1080/20479700.2020.1836733. - DOI
    1. Zhong L, Deng B, Morrison AM, Coca-Stefaniak JA, Yang L. Medical, health and wellness tourism research-a review of the literature (1970–2020) and research agenda. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021;18(20):10875. doi: 10.3390/ijerph182010875. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Yong SP, Goh YN, Ting MS, Lunyai J. Revisit intention for medical services: an investigation on Penang as a medical tourism hub. Malays J Consum Fam Econ. 2021;26:127–157.
    1. Han H, Hwang J. Multi-dimensions of the perceived benefits in a medical hotel and their roles in international travelers’ decision-making process. Int J Hosp Manag. 2013;35:100–108. doi: 10.1016/j.ijhm.2013.05.011. - DOI
    1. Woodman J. Patients beyond borders: everybody’s guide to affordable, world-class medical travel. 3rd ed. Chapel Hill, NC: Healthy Travel Media; 2015.

LinkOut - more resources