What Is Known About The Patient\u27s Experience Of Medical Tourism? A Scoping Review

Background: Medical tourism is understood as travel abroad with the intention of obtaining non-emergencymedical services. This practice is the subject of increasing interest, but little is known about its scope.Methods: A comprehensive scoping review of published academic articles, media sources, and grey literaturereports was performed to answer the question: what is known about the patient’s experience of medical tourism?The review was accomplished in three steps: (1) identifying the question and relevant literature; (2) selecting theliterature; (3) charting, collating, and summarizing the information. Overall themes were identified from this process.Results: 291 sources were identified for review from the databases searched, the majority of which were mediapieces (n = 176). A further 57 sources were included for review after hand searching reference lists. Of the 348sources that were gathered, 216 were ultimately included in this scoping review. Only a small minority of sourcesreported on empirical studies that involved the collection of primary data (n = 5). The four themes identified viathe review were: (1) decision-making (e.g., push and pull factors that operate to shape patients’ decisions); (2)motivations (e.g., procedure-, cost-, and travel-based factors motivating patients to seek care abroad); (3) risks (e.g.,health and travel risks); and (4) first-hand accounts (e.g., patients’ experiential accounts of having gone abroad formedical care). These themes represent the most discussed issues about the patient’s experience of medical tourismin the English-language academic, media, and grey literatures.Conclusions: This review demonstrates the need for additional research on numerous issues, including: (1)understanding how multiple information sources are consulted and evaluated by patients before deciding uponmedical tourism; (2) examining how patients understand the risks of care abroad; (3) gathering patients’prospective and retrospective accounts; and (4) the push and pull factors, as well as the motives of patients toparticipate in medical tourism. The findings from this scoping review and the knowledge gaps it uncovered alsodemonstrate that there is great potential for new contributions to our understanding of the patient’s experience ofmedical tourism

Primary Productivity in Lake Red Haw, Lucas County, Iowa

Primary production studies were conducted on an 83-acre lake in south central Iowa during the summer of 1970 and winter of 1971. Primary productivity was measured using the light­ dark bottle method. Summer values ranged from 2.74 to 6.25 grams of carbon assimilated/m2/day. This was correlated with water temperature, nitrate nitrogen, ortho phosphates, carbon dioxide, light penetration and plankton populations. Studies were continued during the winter using C14 and scintillation counting methods

What is known about the effects of medical tourism in destination and departure countries? A scoping review

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Medical tourism involves patients intentionally leaving their home country to access non-emergency health care services abroad. Growth in the popularity of this practice has resulted in a significant amount of attention being given to it from researchers, policy-makers, and the media. Yet, there has been little effort to systematically synthesize what is known about the effects of this phenomenon. This article presents the findings of a scoping review examining what is known about the effects of medical tourism in destination and departure countries.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Drawing on academic articles, grey literature, and media sources extracted from18 databases, we follow a widely used scoping review protocol to synthesize what is known about the effects of medical tourism in destination and departure countries. The review design has three main stages: (1) identifying the question and relevant literature; (2) selecting the literature; and (3) charting, collating, and summarizing the data.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The large majority of the 203 sources accepted into the review offer a perspective of medical tourism from the Global North, focusing on the flow of patients from high income nations to lower and middle income countries. This greatly shapes any discussion of the effects of medical tourism on destination and departure countries. Five interrelated themes that characterize existing discussion of the effects of this practice were extracted from the reviewed sources. These themes frame medical tourism as a: (1) user of public resources; (2) solution to health system problems; (3) revenue generating industry; (4) standard of care; and (5) source of inequity. It is observed that what is currently known about the effects of medical tourism is minimal, unreliable, geographically restricted and mostly based on speculation.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Given its positive and negative effects on the health care systems of departure and destination countries, medical tourism is a highly significant and contested phenomenon. This is especially true given its potential to serve as a powerful force for the inequitable delivery of health care services globally. It is recommended that empirical evidence and other data associated with medical tourism be subjected to clear and coherent definitions, including reports focused on the flows of medical tourists and surgery success rates. Additional primary research on the effects of medical tourism is needed if the industry is to develop in a manner that is beneficial to citizens of both departure and destination countries.</p