PROSPECTS IN MEDICAL TOURISM IN GEORGIA- CHALLENGES, AND BARRIERS IN HEALTHCARE SECTOR

The global growth in the flow of patients and health professionals, as well as, capital funding and medical technology has given rise to broadly defined, rapidly growing, multi billion industry of medical tourism. In the last decade, medical tourism industry captured particular interest of the whole world. Experts of the field forecast great perspectives in medical tourism for Georgia. Georgia's healthcare sector is indeed competitive in number of medical services. The objective of conducted research was to identify barriers hindering medical tourism development and existing challenges in Georgia and to elaborate recommendations, accordingly. For this purpose, narrative review was performed utilizing various scientific article bases. In line with the research goals, 37 semi-structured, deep interviews were conducted with stakeholders of medical tourism industry in Georgia. Results were processed and analyzed using NVIVO software. According to the results of the research, to develop medical tourism direction, in Georgia, it is necessary to position and promote country as a medical tourism destination, globally. It is important to strengthen role of the government and increase its engagement in this direction. Another recommendation concerns quality of medical care and need for standardization of services and processes in medical facilities. Moreover, international accreditation and affiliation with international medical chains is suggested. To conclude, Georgia has considerable potential for medical tourism development and a perspective to become a hub of medical tourism in Transcaucasia region. However, there are number of significant barriers to overcome and challenges to respond to.