Under the supervision of Dr. Steven Koester, University of Colorado at Denver doctoral student Courtney A. Lee will conduct research on how international medical tourism affects local populations. Health care, once the most localized of activities, is expanding into a global arena. The practice of patients traveling to foreign countries for medical procedures is now a rapidly expanding, multibillion dollar global industry. However, little is known about local social effects in the countries to which these "tourists" travel.
The research will be carried out in Costa Rica, long lauded for its successes in public health and a popular destination for elective medical procedures. Despite pressures to privatize, the Costa Rican health system remains almost exclusively public, while medical tourism is a private industry. This context provides a unique opportunity to examine the ways in which the line between public and private line is navigated, the impacts of integrating this powerful global industry into a state-oriented system, and the potential implications that medical tourism has for health care of local, underprivileged populations.
This project utilizes a multi-level, multi-sited, comparative ethnographic design to examine the relationships among international entities, national government, and on the ground practices that surround medical tourism. Lee will interview brokerages in the United States to understand how companies operate and their relationship with hospitals in Costa Rica. In Costa Rica, she will conduct semi-structured interviews with health officials and carry out ethnographic field research in one public and one private hospital. She will observe and interview physicians, patients, and administrators; document hospital procedures and protocols; and collect information on attitudes and opinions about medical tourism, motivations to practice in the public or private sphere, comparative salaries and benefits, and job satisfaction.
The remarkable growth of medical tourism coupled with the lack of research in this arena makes this project timely and significant. This project addresses important social policy issues, particularly for underrepresented populations, as well as issues of social responsibility for industries. It also contributes to the education of a social scientist.
