You, too, can be an international medical traveler: Reading medical travel guidebooks

Drawing on literature on self-help and travel guide writing, this paper interrogates five international medical travel guidebooks aimed at encouraging American and British audiences to travel abroad to purchase medical care. These guidebooks articulate a three-step self-help “program” to produce a “...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Health & place 2012-09, Vol.18 (5), p.935-941
Main Authors: Ormond, Meghann, Sothern, Matthew
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Audience
care
Destinations
Dysfunction
expert patient
health
Health care
Health technology assessment
Humans
Intermediaries
International medical travel
internet
Medical Tourism
Medical treatment
Patient-consumer
politics
Pursuit
Reading
Reference Books
Self Care
Self-help
Selfhelp
Tourism
Travel
Travel guidebooks
U.S.A
United Kingdom
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Summary:Drawing on literature on self-help and travel guide writing, this paper interrogates five international medical travel guidebooks aimed at encouraging American and British audiences to travel abroad to purchase medical care. These guidebooks articulate a three-step self-help “program” to produce a “savvy” international medical traveler. First, readers are encouraged to view their home healthcare system as dysfunctional. Second, they are encouraged to re-read destinations' healthcare landscapes as hosting excellent and accessible care. Finally, these texts explicitly enjoin readers to see themselves as active, cosmopolitan consumers whose pursuits are central to rectifying the dysfunction of their home healthcare systems.
ISSN:1353-8292
1873-2054
DOI:10.1016/j.healthplace.2012.06.018