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”

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.

Keywords

• Cross-border Healthcare
• Behavioral Model of Health Services
• Medical Tourism