Examining the Impact of Healthcare Consultancy on the Development of Medical Tourism

Abstract

Medical tourism has evolved as a fleetly growing industry in recent times, as patients seek affordable and high-quality medical care abroad. This trend has created significant openings for healthcare providers and consultants to look into this request and offer their services to patients who are looking for affordable and high-quality healthcare services. This review paper examines the impact of healthcare consultancy on the development of medical tourism. It followed a narrative approach to identify and synthesise relevant literature on healthcare consultancy and medical tourism. A comprehensive hunt of electronic databases, including PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science, using applicable keywords similar to “healthcare consultancy”, “medical tourism”, “healthcare travel”, healthcare facilitation”, and “healthcare collaboration”. It identified the role of healthcare consultancy as providing information, quality care, communication, support and availability of healthcare services. It also identified that patients look out for expertise, character, communication, cost effectiveness and accessibility in medical consultants. The paper also identified challenges in the environment of medical tourism and medical consultancy such as regulatory issues, cultural differences, and communication barriers between healthcare consultants, medical
providers, and patients. This review shows that healthcare consultancy can have a positive impact on the development of medical tourism by furnishing precious services to healthcare providers and patients. However, healthcare consultants must navigate a complex set of
challenges to ensure that their services are effective and sustainable in the long term. Therefore, further research is demanded to augment the understanding of healthcare consultancy in the development of medical tourism and to identify strategies for prostrating the challenges associated with this industry.

How to cite this article:
Afrifa-Minka M F , Sony A . Examining the Impact
of Healthcare Consultancy on the Development
of Medical Tourism. Int J HealthCare Edu & Med
Inform. 2023;10(3&4):17-24.

DOI: https://doi.org/ 10.24321/2455.9199.202307