Past themes and future trends in medical tourism research: A co word analysis
Abstract The purpose of this paper is to analyze the evolution of medical tourism (MT) research from a longitudinal perspective (period 1931 2016) A co word analysis was applied to themes found in published research listed in the Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus database services. The results reveal six clusters of themes: a) issues regarding ethical implications, trust and accreditation; b) health, wellness, spa tourism and service quality; c) health related issues, medical treatments and tourism; d) "sensitive" practices in MT; e) medical tourism destinations and marketing; and f) globalization, policies and the effect on international patients. This study is one of the first attempts to use a bibliometric approach and co word analysis so as to offer powerful insight into the conceptual structure of MT research from academic literature and to visualize all the underlying and interconnected subfields. It also provides a guide to researchers by improving the understanding of the current state of the art and predicting the direction of future research.