LAUSR

‘Your passport to a world of options’ (medicaltourism.com) is the slogan of one of the myriad websites advertising ‘medical tourism’. It implicitly suggests that health and cure can be had easily and at competitive prices – provided potential clients have a passport and are able to make the right choices. Then clients will receive first-rate medical care by top-class physicians in state-of-the-art hospitals set in beautiful surroundings. The slogan further promises better, enhanced, or alternative, healthcare than the one individuals think they would receive in their home countries. Along with this perception comes the – perhaps exaggerated – assurance of travel agents and companies offering medical-cumtouristic packages that the choice is entirely the patient’s. He or she would just have to make the right choice. Their ailment would then be dealt with professionally and efficiently at the chosen destination, curing the client. Thus, the concept of ‘medical tourism’ has spread fantastic promises and imaginations of speedy and happy healthcare across the globe, triggering (inter-)national cross-bordermobility of patients – and leaving open many questions. This special symposium investigates global medical flows across international borders, flows which are often summarised as ‘medical tourism’. We believe that the phenomenon needs deeper investigation and therefore, we have engaged with research on movements for healthcare over the past five years within the framework of the Indo-European research network Advances in Research on Globally Accessible Medicine (AROGYAM). Our analysis of people travelling across borders to take care of their health reinforces conclusions of other scholars that the term ‘medical tourism’ with all its definitional shades remains vague or is, at times, too large to be meaningful. John Connell, for instance, states: ‘ ... it is something of an umbrella term, whether for “medical” procedures or “tourism”’ (Connell, 2011, p. 3). Scholarship and literature on ‘medical tourism’ abound; indeed, it is sometimes claimed that it is one of the fastest growing academic fields, and ‘a rapidly expanding literature over the past five years with an “explosion” in 2010 and 2011’ (Hanefeld, Smith, Horsfall, & Lunt, 2014, p. 411). It is a field explored by scholars of many disciplines, representing the social sciences, business and/or tourism studies and public health. They all approach the topic from different angles. Literature in business and/or tourism studies is often concerned with investigating barriers to the growth of patient flows, and how countries might improve their positions as competitive healthcare providers in a global market. It often employs quantitative research methods and prefers an economic perspective. In contrast, anthropologists and other social scientists, who tend to argue that some of this literature lacks a critical edge, are more interested in the movements of clients and patients themselves and in their perceptions of medical travel. They often use a mixed-methods approach or carry out qualitative research. Public health scholars often include the perspectives of national governments, their engagement in public health strategies for their citizenry, and their tourism industry policies in their studies. Both for an academic and a more general audience, handbooks on ‘medical tourism’ have mushroomed (see, for instance, Botterill, Pennings, & Mainil, 2013). For a wide-ranging overview