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“The Major Forces that Need to Back Medical Tourism Were ... in Alignment”: Championing Development of Barbados’s Medical Tourism Sector

Resource type
Date created
2015
Authors/Contributors
Abstract
Governments around the world have expressed interest in developing local medical tourism sectors, framing the industry as an opportunity for economic growth and health system improvement. This article addresses questions about how the desire to develop a medical tourism sector in a country emerges and which stakeholders are involved in both creating momentum and informing its progress. Presenting a thematic analysis of 19 key informant interviews conducted with domestic and inter-national stakeholders in Barbados’s medical tourism sector in 2011, we examine the roles that “actors” and “champions” at home and abroad have played in the sector’s development. Physicians and the Barbadian government, along with international investors, the Medical Tourism Association, and development agencies, have promoted the industry, while actors such as medical tourists and international hospital accreditation companies are passively framing the terms of how medical tourism is unfolding in Barbados. Within this context, we seek to better understand the roles and relationships of various actors and champions implicated in the development of medical tourism in order to provide a more nuanced understanding of how the sector is emerging in Barbados and elsewhere and how its development might impact equitable health system development.
Document
Published as
Johnston, R., V.A. Crooks, J. Snyder, and R. Whitmore. "The major forces that need to back medical tourism were ... in alignment": Championing development of Barbados's medical tourism sector. International Journal of Health Services, 45(2): 334-352. http://joh.sagepub.com/content/45/2/334.abstract
Publication title
International Journal of Health Services
Document title
“The Major Forces that Need to Back Medical Tourism Were ... in Alignment”: Championing Development of Barbados’s Medical Tourism Sector
Volume
45
Issue
2
First page
334
Last page
352
Copyright statement
Copyright is held by the author(s).
Scholarly level
Peer reviewed?
Yes
Language
English
Member of collection
Download file Size
11-Major-Forces.pdf 595.31 KB

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