Medical tourism development: A systematic review of economic aspects

ABSTRACT

The tourism industry is one of the largest and most productive economic activities in the world that directly and indirectly affects other economic and cultural activities. The purpose of this study was to identify the strengths points and challenges of medical tourism development in Iran. A systematic review was conducted according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses PRISMA guidelines. Overview of the study shows that Iran has good scope for the medical tourism industry but, in general, is faced with main challenges , including lack of technology and technical infrastructures, existence of different organs of political and decision-making and also its cultural and political conditions. Therefore if Iran intends to use the strategy of developing medical tourism, as one of the strengths of the resilient economy, it should weigh strengths and challenges.

KEYWORDS:

• Medical tourism
• health tourism
• therapeutic tourism
• resistance
• Economics
• Iran

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Marziye Hadian

Marziye Hadian is a PhD candidate in management of health care from Isfahan University of Medical Sciences. She has more than 10 publications including articles and books in related to health care management.

Alireza Jabbari

Alireza Jabbari is an associate professor of the Medical University of Isfahan for more than 14 years. he is expert in medical tourism and over 14 years activity in this area as a researcher.

Seyed Hossein Mousavi

Seyed Hossein Mousavi is vice chancellor for clinical affairs of Bushehr University of Medical Sciences, Bushehr, Iran.

Hojjat Sheikhbardsiri

Hojjat Sheikhbardesiri is PhD of health in emergencies and disasters management at medical University of Kerman. He has more than 16 years of work experience in nursing working in hospital emergency department and emergency medical transport services. He also has more than 50 publications including articles and books.