Definition
The development of the MTI was a multi-year, multi-step, multi stakeholder approach. We followed a rigorous 8-step, methodological, statistical and index construction procedure to develop this psychometric sound measurement.
The MTI measures the attractiveness of a destination as a medical tourism destination in terms of overall destination image and environment; healthcare and tourism attractiveness and infrastructure; and availability and quality of medical facilities and services.
Conceptualization
The MTI considers push and pull factors. Pull Factors: They focus on the offer of medical tourism services. They can be grouped into three groups. The first relates to overall destination environment; the second includes factors related to the medical tourism industry; and the third includes factors related to the quality and availability of the medical facilities and services. Push Factors: These are factors related to the demand for medical tourism.
They are mainly related to consumers and includes factors such as socio‐demographical (e.g., age, gender, education, marital status, ethnicity, geographical location) or health related factors (e.g., insurance status, health status) driving the demand for medical tourism. These variables are used as control variables allowing sorting and exploring the MTI values in the ‘members only section’. For example, you will be able to explore and discover and assess how gender, age, or geographical location matters for the medical tourism perception.
The following Figures show the conceptual model used for the MTI.
Dimensions
Destination Environment
This sub‐index assesses the overall economy of the destination, the safety and image of the destination, favorability of exchange rate as well as cultural aspects such as cultural or language similarities.
Medical Tourism Industry
TThis sub‐index consists of two parts, a tourism and a medical part. It assesses the attractiveness of a destination as a tourism destination in terms of popularity of tourism destination, weather conditions or cultural and natural attractions/sites as well as costs associated with medical tourism such as cost of treatment, costs of accommodation or costs of travel.
Quality of Facility and Services
This sub-index assesses the quality of care such as doctor’s expertise, healthcare standards, or medical equipment. It also assesses the reputation of doctors or hospital as well as internationalization of staff and accreditation of facility. Finally, it also considers the overall patient experience such as friendliness of staff and doctors.
