Medical tourism globe-trotting: Features, impacts, and risks

Today, the medical tourism industry has a projected growth rate of up to 25% year-over-year for the next 10 years and it is estimated that 3–4% of the world’s population will travel internationally for healthcare. The purpose of this article is to give a brief insight into relevant topics of medical tourism that remain undefined, unsolved or unregulated. The expected impacts of medical tourism include possible ethical, legal, and medical risks arising as a result of differences in particular countries in the standards applied in medical tourism institutions/facilities. Different standards of medical care, differences in legal systems and regulations, and taken procedures could result in unethical situations mainly due to the absence of internationally prescribed laws and accreditations related to medical tourism.