Medical tourism research in Poland: a scoping review

Adrian Lubowiecki-Vikuk, Anna Białk-Wolf

Abstract

Purpose

The interest in medical tourism is due to the increasing number of scholarly publications on the subject. Polish researchers are progressively contributing to this discourse, shedding light on various research contexts within one of the prominent medical tourism destinations in Central and Eastern Europe. This article is aimed at mapping the knowledge of and outlining the directions for developing medical tourism research in Poland.

Design/methodology/approach

The study was conducted in the form of a bibliometric review, including performance analysis and science mapping. The analysis included texts by Polish researchers indexed in the international Web of Science and Scopus databases and the Polish BazEkon database. In addition, publications found in Google Scholar, Nauka Polska (Polish Science) and Biblioteka Nauki (Library of Science) were included. VOSviewer was used for the bibliometric analysis.

Findings

A total of 97 scientific publications from 2003–2023 were studied. The analysis provided an insight into the main themes of Polish researchers from the perspective of the discipline they represent. Five clusters were identified: (1) “global aspects of medical tourism,” (2) “medical tourist,” (3) “development of medical tourism,” (4) “Poland as a medical tourism destination” and (5) “medical tourism destinations worldwide.” On the one hand, an interdisciplinary approach to medical tourism makes it possible to gain broader knowledge that goes beyond one scientific discipline. On the other hand, the results show the diversity of medical tourism research and the dilemmas involved.

Research limitations/implications

The limitation of this article is the analysis chosen, which does not consider the scientific quality of the articles studied. Instead, we identify leading and future issues that should be of interest to researchers and used by practitioners and managers of medical tourism destinations.

Originality/value

The review and subsequent mapping of scientific output made it possible (1) to understand the different perspectives on the definition of medical tourism, (2) to assess the 20-year contribution of Polish researchers to the development of medical tourism research and (3) to identify key contexts for further research.