• International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.255-262
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• 2020

Recently, medical tourism is recognized as a high value-added industry because of its longer period of stay and higher expenditure than general tourism. In particular, although the number of medical tourists visiting Korea is increasing, the perception of Korean medical services is low. The purpose of this paper is to develop the app which, based on medical tourism type, recommends tourism destinations. Additionally, this proposed app can expand general tourism as well. It can provide tourists with medical information easily by sorting types tourists. Besides, as medical tourists normally stay long, we can take the advantage of post-treatment time. This app collects medical information data and tourist destination data, and categorizes the types of medical tourists into four categories: disease medical tourism, traditional medical tourism, cosmetic medical tourism, and recreational medical tourism. It provides medical information according to each type and recommends customized tourist destinations. User-based collaborative filtering is applied for tourist destination recommendations.

• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.345-362
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• 2010

It is necessary to develop new competitive products under the world economic downturn. The medical tourism industry a good example and it has grown rapidly for last couple of years. This paper aims to investigate socio-demographic proxies of inbound medical tourists in Korea. In particular, the medical tourist behaviors are modeled by considering the factors such as acquisition process of medical tourism information, service level of medical tourism industry and the choice attributes. The results of this study are summarized that: 1) Moot inbound medical tourists are over 40-years old with professional occupation accompanied with families; 2) The information resources are mainly acquired from travel agents and WOM(Word of Mouth) such as friends and relatives; 3) Current problems are lack of various promotion channels and the competitiveness of medical coots; 4) The inbound medical tourists are not homogeneous but vary in different segments. The study suggests that various marketing strategies should be implemented for target market segments to promote Korea as a medical tourism hub.

• Information Systems Review
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.59-73
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• 2013

Healthcare costs are continuously increasing due to longer life expectancy and providing global healthcare services through medical tourism is new service growth engine for Korea. Several countries have well established programs and infrastructure dedicated to medical tourism. South Korea is attempting to become a major player in this domain by undertaking broad initiatives. The success of medical tourism is greatly impacted by easy access to two types of information, namely, medical and travel information. The National Health Insurance System in Korea collects huge amount of clinical and financial information from all hospitals. However, this information does not get used effectively in health and travel information systems to support medical tourism. This paper provide clear process map of medical tourism to understand how the patient and information process both medical and tourism fields also describe the need of customer and service provider. In this paper, we develop a medical tourism service system that will promote information exchange and service delivery.

• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.579-595
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• 2008

Medical tourism is a contemporary phenomenon which has its roots in both tourism and health care industry. This market has grown significantly' for the last 10 years. The purpose of this study is to suggest strategies to develop medical tourism in Korea by studying cases of the medical tourism developed countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, India, Thailand as well as analysis medical tourists who has visited to H university hospital. In total of 254 medical tourists were analysed and the results of the study are followed: Korean government need to appease medical law to be able to attract more medical tourists; medical industry and tourism industry need to develop Korean specialized medical tourism package, Middle-Eastern markets, where the oil money exists, should be developed.

• International Journal of Internet, Broadcasting and Communication
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.98-103
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• 2018

Globally, medical tourism draws attention as a national growth engine industry, and is actively expanding. Current medical tourism leans towards large hospitals making it difficult to attract new users. Users collect the information for medical tourism through various paths in order to receive medical consultations and customized tour services. To expand medical tourism to small and medium sized hospitals, it is necessary to have customized medical consultations, tours and interpreter services, which are the key elements of medical tourism. This paper suggests services that users can use to match medical consultations and find tours and interpreters they want at the same time. This paper suggests ways to provide integrated services based on the information experienced by users, combining the required items from the perspectives of each user, hospital and guide. To match the content provided by hospitals and guides with experience information from users systematically, this study suggests the convergence plan for a service model that can match the experience information between users and hospitals, between users and guides and between hospitals and guides systematically by operating the data in the universal container.

• International Journal of Internet, Broadcasting and Communication
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.115-120
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• 2018

Current medical tourism is focused on the services of large hospitals and it is hard to find ways to attract the users. Users collect information for medical tourism through various paths in order to receive the medical consultations and customized tour services. To expand medical tourism to small and medium sized hospitals, it is necessary to have the customized medical consultations, tours and interpreter services, which are the key elements of medical tourism. This study suggests ways to provide the services based on information on medical consultations, tours and interpreter services that users had experienced directly, and also based on the platform for the essential items integrated from users, hospitals and guides' viewpoints. With information on hospitals that provide medical consultations and guides who are able to provide professional services in translation, interpretation and customized tour, users may accumulate and share the information about hospitals and customized tours verified by other users from the integrated platform. To match the contents provided by hospitals and guides with information experienced by users into a system, this study suggests the construction plan for the service model that can match the experience information between users and hospitals, between users and guides and between hospitals and guides systematically by operating the data in the universal container.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.9-16
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• 2012

Objectives: This study was purposed to gain basic information for design of medical tourism for Japanese tourists using traditional Korean medicine (KTM). Methods: A questionnaire regarding Korean traditional medical tourism was administered to Japanese tourists. 224 valid responses were selected, and their awareness of KTM, preferred subject and decision factors for participation in Korea traditional medical tourism were analyzed by SPSS 19.0 version. Results: 23.6% of surveyees gave a positive answer on interest in medical tourism of KTM and 44.6% showed a middle degree. The most preferred subject was medical check-up followed by skin aesthetics, orthopedics and gynecology. Communication, medical skill level, hospital facilities and medical expenses were indicated as the important factor for participation's decision on KTM-based medical tourism. Conclusions: KTM-based medical tourism could be a driving motor of medical tourism in Korea. The medical check & skin care associated medical services are recommended, and the public relationship for awareness of KTM supported by government is strongly required for acquisition of Japanese tourists.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.54-61
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• 2012

Objectives : This study aimed to obtain general information for the design of a medical tourism plan toward Chinese using Korean medicine (KM). Methods : A questionnaire was asked of Chinese tourists regarding of Korea traditional medical tourism. 148 valid responses were obtained and their awareness of KM, and preferred subject and decision factors for their participation in Korea traditional medical tourism were analyzed using SPSS version 12.0. Results : 72% of respondents showed over a moderate degree of interest in medical tourism of KM. The most preferred subject was skin aesthetics, followed by medical check-ups and rehabilitation. Medical skill level, communication, and medical cost were indicated as the important factors for participants' decisions about KM-based medical tourism. Conclusions : Medical tourism could be a potential avenue for development by the KM-based Korean medical industry. Cosmetic-associated medical services are recommended, and enhanced public relations about KM-medical skill levels are strongly suggested for Chinese tourists.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Integrative Medicine
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.193-202
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• 2019

Purpose : The study was conducted to analyze the differences in perceptions, attitudes, and knowledge of health tourism students' medical tourism industry as a basic data for improving the curriculum for human resource development that can be activated by the medical tourism industry. Methods : The questionnaires were directly distributed and retrieved from 394 university students attending 4 year college health department and tourism department of some regions (IRB approval number, KW-2017-05). The questionnaire used the Likert 5-point scale to analyze differences in perceptions, attitudes, and knowledge levels in the medical tourism industry. Independent sample t tests were conducted to examine the differences in perceptions, attitudes, and knowledge about the medical tourism industry between the two groups. Results : Results obtained from this study are as follows. 1. Differences in perceptions of the medical tourism industry were 3.44 points for health and 3.45 points for tourism (p<.05). 2. The difference in attitude level was 2.28 for health and 2.79 for tourism. And that tourism has a high perception and attitude. The knowledge of medical tourism industry was 5.93 in health department and 7.11 in sight tourism, and the tourism sector was significantly higher (p<.001). 3. As a result of analysis on attitudes, interest, direct and indirect experience, practical knowledge acquisition, and development possibility were all statistically significant. 4. 98.6 % of the health students and 97.8 % of the tourism students did not obtain the qualification for the qualification of the international medical tourism coordinator. However, in the future, respondents who answered that they have obtained the certificate of international medical tourism coordinator responded positively to 54.9 % of tourism department and 25.2 % of health department. Conclusion : A systematic education of the medical tourism industry will improve the level of human resource development in the medical tourism industry, including the acquisition of international medical tourism coordinator certification, as well as the level of medical tourism industry awareness, knowledge and attitude.

• International Journal of Internet, Broadcasting and Communication
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.36-39
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• 2022

Medical tourism is recognized as a high value-added industry due to its longer stay and more useful costs than general tourism, and is growing rapidly around the world, especially in Asia. In addition, medical tourism is a new form of tourism that combines medical services with tourism activities such as recreation, leisure, and cultural activities, nowadays, medical tourism is emphasizing the combination of medical and tourism. Although Korea medical system and clinic have excellent medical equipment and infrastructure, it is not consistent with policy support and legislation. That have make it difficult for consumers to choose clinics for medical tourism. Therefore, it is necessary to provide customized information to the clinics that consumers want to match each other's services. In particular, it is aimed at consumers with simple procedures and cosmetic purposes, especially at small hospitals. In this paper, we propose a customized service platform that matches users seeking clinics and also medical tourism. Also we can easy to reservation clinic for medical tour.