title: Evidence on global medical travel.
abstract: The potential benefits of travelling across national borders to obtain medical treatment include improved care, decreased costs and reduced waiting times. However, medical travel involves additional risks, compared to obtaining treatment domestically. We review the publicly-available evidence on medical travel. We suggest that medical travel needs to be understood in terms of its potential risks and benefits so that it can be evaluated against alternatives by patients who are seeking care. We propose three domains -quality standards, informed decision-making, economic and legal protection - in which better evidence could support the development of medical travel policies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3EB, England .
authors.forename: Kai
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ruggeri
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic .
authors.forename: Ladislav
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Záliš
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3EB, England .
authors.forename: Christopher R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Meurice
authors.affiliation: North Central College, Naperville, Illinois, United States of America .
authors.forename: Ian
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Hilton
authors.affiliation: Medical Faculty, University of Köln, Köln, Germany .
authors.forename: Terry-Lisa
authors.initials: TL
authors.lastname: Ly
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Warwick, Coventry, England .
authors.forename: Zorana
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zupan
authors.affiliation: The Policy Institute, King's College London, London, England .
authors.forename: Saba
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hinrichs
mesh_terms: D003657:Decision Making; D014943:Global Health; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006291:Health Policy; D006801:Humans; D057193:Medical Tourism / Q000523:psychology; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D018570:Risk Assessment