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<div class="gmail_quote">-<br>From: <b class="gmail_sendername">Ruggiero, Mrs. Ana Lucia (WDC)</b> <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:ruglucia@paho.org">ruglucia@paho.org</a>></span><br>crossposted from: <a href="mailto:EQUIDAD@listserv.paho.org">EQUIDAD@listserv.paho.org</a><br>
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<p style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in"><b><font color="maroon" size="3" face="Arial"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: maroon; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-WEIGHT: bold" lang="EN">Medical tourism today: What is the state of existing knowledge?<br>
<br></span></font></b><font color="navy" face="Arial"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: navy" lang="EN"></span></font></p>
<p style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in"><font color="navy" size="2" face="Arial"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: navy; FONT-SIZE: 10pt" lang="EN">Laura Hopkins a, <font color="#3366ff">Ronald Labonté</font> b, Vivien Runnels b and Corinne Packer b</span></font></p>

<p style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in"><font color="navy" size="2" face="Arial"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: navy; FONT-SIZE: 10pt" lang="EN">A School of Public Health, Health Sciences Building, University of Saskatchewan, Canada </span></font></p>

<p style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in"><font color="navy" size="2" face="Arial"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: navy; FONT-SIZE: 10pt" lang="EN">B Globalization and Health Equity, Institute of Population Health, University of Ottawa, Canada </span></font></p>

<p style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in"><font color="navy" size="2" face="Arial"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: navy; FONT-SIZE: 10pt" lang="EN"><br><b><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Journal of Public Health Policy (2010) 31, 185–198. doi:10.1057/jphp.2010.10<br>
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<p style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in"><font color="navy" size="2" face="Arial"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: navy; FONT-SIZE: 10pt" lang="EN">Abstract at: </span></font><span><font color="navy" face="Arial"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: navy"><a href="http://bit.ly/aVNyMT" target="_blank"><font color="navy"><span style="COLOR: navy">http://bit.ly/aVNyMT</span></font></a></span></font></span><font color="navy" face="Arial"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: navy" lang="EN"><br>
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<p style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in"><font color="navy" size="2" face="Arial"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: navy; FONT-SIZE: 10pt" lang="EN"> </span></font></p>
<p style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in"><font color="navy" size="2" face="Arial"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: navy; FONT-SIZE: 10pt" lang="EN">“……One manifestation of globalization is medical tourism. As its implications remain largely unknown, we reviewed claimed benefits and risks. Driven by high health-care costs, long waiting periods, or lack of access to new therapies in developed countries, most medical tourists (largely from the United States, Canada, and Western Europe) seek care in Asia and Latin America. </span></font></p>

<p style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in"><font color="navy" size="2" face="Arial"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: navy; FONT-SIZE: 10pt" lang="EN"> </span></font></p>
<p style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in"><font color="navy" size="2" face="Arial"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: navy; FONT-SIZE: 10pt" lang="EN">Although individual patient risks may be offset by credentialing and sophistication in (some) destination country facilities, lack of benefits to poorer citizens in developing countries offering medical tourism remains a generic equity issue. Data collection, measures, and studies of medical tourism all need to be greatly improved if countries are to assess better both the magnitude and potential health implications of this trade……..”</span></font></p>

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