TY - JOUR
T1 - You, too, can be an international medical traveller
T2 - Reading medical travel guidebooks
AU - Ormond, Meghann
AU - Sothern, Matthew Barry
PY - 2012/9
Y1 - 2012/9
N2 - Drawing on literature on self-help and travel guide writing, this paper interrogates five international medical travel guidebooks aimed at encouraging American and British audiences to travel abroad to purchase medical care. These guidebooks articulate a three-step self-help “program” to produce a “savvy” international medical traveler. First, readers are encouraged to view their home healthcare system as dysfunctional. Second, they are encouraged to re-read destinations' healthcare landscapes as hosting excellent and accessible care. Finally, these texts explicitly enjoin readers to see themselves as active, cosmopolitan consumers whose pursuits are central to rectifying the dysfunction of their home healthcare systems.
AB - Drawing on literature on self-help and travel guide writing, this paper interrogates five international medical travel guidebooks aimed at encouraging American and British audiences to travel abroad to purchase medical care. These guidebooks articulate a three-step self-help “program” to produce a “savvy” international medical traveler. First, readers are encouraged to view their home healthcare system as dysfunctional. Second, they are encouraged to re-read destinations' healthcare landscapes as hosting excellent and accessible care. Finally, these texts explicitly enjoin readers to see themselves as active, cosmopolitan consumers whose pursuits are central to rectifying the dysfunction of their home healthcare systems.
U2 - 10.1016/j.healthplace.2012.06.018
DO - 10.1016/j.healthplace.2012.06.018
M3 - Article
SN - 1353-8292
VL - 18
SP - 935
EP - 941
JO - Health & Place
JF - Health & Place
IS - 5
ER -