Impacts of globalization on health
Sometimes patients travel for treatments that aren’t offered locally, or that aren’t delivered as well as they are in their country or region. This demand for globalization in health care continues today. The international health care marketplace that we recognize today emerged in the late 19th century when patients from less developed parts of the world began to travel to major medical centers in Europe and the United States, including Johns Hopkins, for diagnoses and treatments that were unavailable in their own countries. People from all over traveled to these temples, seeking cures for their ailments.
This is not a new concept: In honor of their god of medicine, Asclepius, the ancient Greeks erected the Asclepia Temples, which became some of the world’s first health centers. My colleagues and I will cover these topics-emergency medicine, international standards of patient care, connected health care and the globalized health care workforce-and how they reflect the future of health care in upcoming posts.īut the most immediate idea of globalized health care is tourism, when patients travel-sometimes around the world-to receive diagnosis or treatment.
#IMPACTS OF GLOBALIZATION ON HEALTH PROFESSIONAL#
When we talk about the globalization of health care, we’re addressing how diseases spread quickly across populations and borders to become pandemics, what steps organizations worldwide are taking to standardize health care delivery to ensure patient safety and best outcomes, or why increasing numbers of caregivers are emigrating for better professional opportunities. Money, goods, people, ideas and information mix in unprecedented ways, shaping our lives today and opportunities for tomorrow. Boundaries between countries disappear, giving way to single global markets for labor, manufacturing, finance and service.