Medical Sociology as a Heuristic Instrument for Medical Tourism and Cross-Border Healthcare; Comment on “International Patients on Operation Vacation – Perspectives of Patients Travelling to Hungary for Orthopedic Treatments”
1Scaldis Academy, HZ University of Applied Sciences, Vlissingen, The Netherlands
2CELLO, Sociology of Health, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium
Abstract
In this commentary, we establish a relationship between medical sociology and the study of medical tourism and cross-border healthcare by introducing Ronald Andersen’s behavioral model of healthcare use, and linking this model to the recent empirical study of Kovacs et al. on patients travelling to Hungary for orthopedic treatment. Finally, we plead for more measurement in the field of patient mobility.
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