BACKGROUND : Medical tourism for infertility care is expanding, but the relative contribution of health system and service factors to destination desirability remains uncertain. This study aimed to identify and rank the determinants of medical tourism for infertility care and predict “desirability” destination using an artificial neural network (ANN). METHODS : A cross-sectional study at the Research Institute for Reproductive Sciences, Yazd, Iran (study period 2021–2023). Consecutive consenting medical tourists completed the validated medical tourists attracting factors (MTAF-46) questionnaire consisting of 10 domains. The primary outcome was destination desirability. An ANN (feed-forward, supervised learning) was trained on a random split of the dataset and evaluated on held-out data. Performance was summarized by area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC), accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity. Variable importance was used to characterize the type, direction, and relative strength of associations. RESULTS : A total of 430 respondents were analyzed. The evaluation set showed a strong discrimination (AUC: 95.2%) with overall accuracy 91.3%, sensitivity 57.1%, and specificity 98.1%. Higher scores across several domains were positively associated with desirability; the top contributors were: medical services, economic factors, advertising and marketing, administrative and financial services, and support services. Class proportions indicated that “desirable” cases were less frequent (11.0% in the evaluation set), and model performance favored specificity, consistent with conservative positive classification. CONCLUSIONS The development of infertility medical tourism in Yazd is mainly driven by the quality of core clinical services and economic factors. Effective marketing, transparency in administrative and financial processes, and efficient support services also enhance the destination’s attractiveness.
advertising ; Iran ; marketing ; medical services ; medical tourism ; medical tourists

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to identify Russian inpatients' expectation and satisfaction with nursing service, and further, to analyze the relationship between these variables. METHODS: A structured questionnaire was used to survey for 81 Russian inpatients. The survey was conducted from January to June, 2014. RESULTS: Empathy and assurance significantly influenced nursing service expectation and satisfaction. Nursing service expectation was statistically significant for the number of visit to Korea, and nursing service satisfaction was statistically significant for gender, monthly income and primary care giver during hospitalization. Revisit intention was significantly different according to religion, medical department and primary care giver during hospitalization. There were positive correlations between nursing service expectation and satisfaction, and between nursing service satisfaction and intention to revisit the hospital. CONCLUSION: The results of this study show that the level satisfaction with nursing service influences Russian inpatients' intention continue using the hospital. Therefore, in order to increase the intention to revisit the hospital Korea hospital employees, especially nurses, need to develop nursing service strategies according to general characteristics, culture and nationality of foreign patients.
Empathy ; Ethnic Groups ; Hospitalization ; Humans ; Inpatients ; Intention* ; Korea ; Medical Tourism ; Nursing Services* ; Nursing* ; Patient Satisfaction ; Primary Health Care

The "Act on Overseas Medical Expansion and Foreign Patient Attraction Support"(legislation no. 13599), due to be enacted by the National Assembly during the general meeting on June 23, 2016, will give institutionalized support and fully recognize the efforts for medical tourism-that is, the overseas expansion of medicine and ingress of foreign patients. However, before jumping into medical tourism, the failures of previous ventures in this field must be analyzed. The absence of specific goals and strategies, insufficient planning and analysis of feasibility, the lack of international experience, and glocalization and marketing failures of previous projects are all areas in which improvement is advised. Further, overseas medical expansion is only possible when various considerations are examined, such as the influence on the domestic medical market, as well as plans for securing the management capacity to ensure economic feasibility and risk management of medical institutions.
Humans ; Marketing ; Medical Tourism ; Risk Management

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify factors related to Vietnamese customers who use Korean medical and tourism services. The study was based on the Anderson Models METHODS: Participants were 173 Vietnamese who were living in Ho Chi Minh and Hanoi in Vietnam. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, χ², t-test and Multiple Logistic Regression. RESULTS: Research necessary factors had the most significant effect among the preceding factors, possible factors and necessary factors. Human service and outstanding natural beauty of necessary factors had significant influence on customer intention to use. According to the result of the stepwise logistic regression analysis, the most important item in medical services was human service OR=1.89 (p=.014), and for tour services, outstanding natural beauty OR=4.30 (p=.033). The explained variance for customer intention to use was 91.9%. CONCLUSION: These results suggest the need to improve the human service and outstanding natural beauty to retain customers' intention to use.
Asian Continental Ancestry Group* ; Beauty ; Humans ; Intention* ; Logistic Models ; Medical Tourism* ; Vietnam

The reform of the physician surcharge system in Korea, which was applied beginning August 1, 2014, reduced the financial burden from three major non-covered services. However, hospital financial balances, already negatively affected by the longstanding impact of lower reimbursement from the social insurance system, are likely to decline further. Now is the time for the Korean government to introduce policies that can solve the fundamental problems, caused by low contributions and a limited benefit design, that have distorted health care system. Tertiary care hospitals cannot expect significant revenue from increasing the numbers of beds and expensive equipment, as in the past. Tertiary care hospitals are members of the public health system and are social enterprises intended to contribute to the development of society. Policies should reinforce the traditional hospital model, with a focus on high quality of care, educational training, research, and public health leadership, but also on development of new business models, such as official development assistance and medical tourism. Above all, the government should accept that, in contrast to economy market rules in many other contexts, medical services are not determined according to supply and demand. The government must seek amendment of the relevant laws and regulations, including sustainable benefit plans, in order to provide high quality of care. For the successful implementation of government reform, the government should not ignore procedural justice in the allocation of resources.
Commerce ; Delivery of Health Care ; Jurisprudence ; Korea ; Leadership ; Medical Tourism ; Public Health ; Resource Allocation ; Social Control, Formal ; Social Justice ; Social Security ; Tertiary Care Centers ; Tertiary Healthcare

This article aimed to investigate problems relating to medical tourism based on a review of medical tourism reports and statistics in the global healthcare industry. To be a leading nation in the global healthcare industry, the needs and culture of many peoples, including Muslims, should be considered. Qualified medical services by JCI certification, including nutrition services, will provide opportunities to participate in the international and Asia medical tourism markets. In this article, the definitions of medical tourism, medical service, Halal and Haram, nutrition service for inbound Muslim patients, and Halal food supply in Korea were examined for medical service improvement. Mutual assistance between the government and private enterprise, sharing of medical service information, and construction of a cooperative network system are needed and should be supported by the government.
Asia ; Certification ; Delivery of Health Care* ; Food Supply ; Health Care Sector* ; Humans ; Islam* ; Korea ; Medical Tourism ; Private Sector

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify factors related to the loyalty of Chinese customers who use Korean medical and tourism services. METHODS: Participants were 158 Chinese who visited plastic surgery clinics in Korea. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, One-way ANOVA, Scheffe? test, Pearson Correlation and Hierachical Multiple Regression. RESULTS: Medical service quality, tourism service quality and medical and service satisfaction were positively correlated with customer loyalty. Medical service quality and medical and tourism service satisfaction had significant influence on customer loyalty. The explained variance for customer loyalty was 84.9%. CONCLUSION: These results suggest the need to improve the tourism service and medical and tourism service satisfaction to retain loyal customers.
Asian Continental Ancestry Group* ; Humans ; Korea ; Medical Tourism ; Personal Satisfaction ; Quality of Health Care ; Surgery, Plastic

No abstract available.
Humans ; Medical Tourism/*economics ; Reconstructive Surgical Procedures/*economics ; Republic of Korea ; Surgery, Plastic/*economics

Stem cell therapy has been taken as a highly promising area of future medicine due to its potential for providing new therapeutic modalities for debilitating, incurable diseases. In addition, stem cell therapy holds promise for its great industrial value due to the rapid growth of the market size. Recently, various types of stem cells such as induced pluripotent stem cells are being developed based on the conceptual revolution with regard to cell fate decisions. However, so far, most stem cell therapies have been performed using tissue-specific adult stem cells. Nevertheless, except for a few cases of stem cells such as hematopoietic stem cells that can regenerate hematopoietic tissue, a large proportion of stem cells, especially mesenchymal stromal cells, primarily work through paracrine functioning. The short life span of the injected stem cells and their paracrine mode of action pose a limitation to the maximum therapeutic efficacy that can be achieved from the current stem cell therapy model, warranting further research and development to enhance their efficacy. Despite the fact that stem cell therapies largely remain in the research stage, the public has expectations of rapid results and even fanaticism, leading to unauthorized stem cell practices and medical tourism. Moreover, the temptation to expedite the industrialization of stem cell therapeutics by simplifying the authorization process could increase the risk of endangering the rights of patients. Thus, stem cell therapy can become a 'hope' when society can overcome the stem cell 'hype'.
Adult Stem Cells ; Hematopoietic Stem Cells ; Human Rights ; Humans ; Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells ; Medical Tourism ; Mesenchymal Stromal Cells ; Stem Cells

Recently many hospitals in Korea have become interested in JCI (Joint Commission International) accreditation. As the medical market opens to medical tourism and to attract foreign patients, JCI accreditation has become the prime object. It is compatible with government policy for upgrading the medical industry and necessary to strengthen compatibility with foreign hospitals. JCI accreditation means that the medical services provided by a hospital are equivalent in quality and patient safety to medical services internationally. It also means that the hospital is reliable in treating patients according to international policies and regulations. The most important meaning of JCI accreditation is that the staff in the hospital have promised to provide safe patient care according to the hospital policies and bylaws made and approved by the staff members. During the process for JCI accreditation, the hospital staff's concept regarding patient safety has been changed and many of them are now voluntarily involved in quality improvement and patient safety activities in the hospital.
Accreditation ; Constitution and Bylaws ; Humans ; Joints ; Korea ; Medical Tourism ; Patient Care ; Patient Safety ; Quality Improvement ; Social Control, Formal