Trend of Medical Tourism Publications: An Attempt to Explore the Involved Academic Disciplines and Interests

BACKGROUND: Medical tourism suffers from the lack of a consensus regarding the involved categories. This study aimed to address this gap from the academic disciplines and publications perspective. METHODS: Totally 1954 citations were identified through a formula of keyword search of SCOPUS. In order to classify the various subject areas, we followed the international standard classification of education (ISCED) developed by UNESCO. Moreover, the trends of publications were identified based on their popularity between 2000 and 2017. RESULTS: The category with the most interests on publication about medical tourism was ‘health and welfare’, followed by ‘social science’. Even though various disciplines were involved in the medical tourism, it seems that a downward trend has been experienced since 2015. CONCLUSION: The identified key trends of medical tourism publications will benefit researchers exploring the categories of medical tourism or health travel. The results contribute to advance the state of knowledge from the academic perspective.