The Codification and Evaluation of Policy Indexes and Medical Tourism Rules in Iran (A Qualitative and Quantitative Study)

The revenue of world's medical tourism industry has recently increased by 20% annually. Hence, investing in this sector is not only seen as a means of increasing revenue but also it is accompanied by some positive consequences including the improved services, the creation of a more favorable trade balance and increased tourism. The aim of this study was to codify and evaluate the policy indexes and medical tourism rules in Iran in moving towards expanding the health villages.

In this study, the combination of qualitative and quantitative methods was used. In the first stage, the content analysis was selected as a research strategy and MAXQDA 18 software was used for data analysis. Collected through questionnaire and interview, the obtained data were submitted to the expert’s panel to be analyzed. In this way, the indicators were finalized. In the second stage, the quantitative evaluation of indexes was done by using multi-criteria decision-making techniques.

The results of this study indicated that as far as the development of medical tourism based on health village expansion approach is concerned, the indicators relating to health insurance rules, the medical errors rules, advertising policies, the required and new rules and regulations and supportive policies are the most important indicators in the field of laws and policy-making in terms of priority. Ethical Considerations: In this study, ethical considerations such as Knowledge competence and expertise of the Statistics Community have been considered.

This research revealed that it is a necessity for the respective authorities to pay particular attention to the development, design and implementation of long-term and short-term strategies proportionate to the proposed indicators in an integrated manner with special emphasis on prioritization realized for the health system in moving towards medical tourism promotion.