Synthesis of the results of interviews with medical tourism experts on the level of digitalization of clinics and its impact on patients’ willingness to return and receive services.
Parameter
Expert assessment
Typical comments/Issues
Number of inquiries via digital channels
High
Patients actively use mobile applications and online registration. Online registrations have increased by about 30–40% over the past year.
Quality of inquiries/patient awareness
Medium–high
Online patients are better prepared and ask specific questions. Some users do not fill out their medical history, which complicates the doctor’s work.
Repeated contacts/loyalty
High
Patients who use digital services are more likely to return (40–50% repeat visits).
Convenience of digital channels
High
Patients appreciate quick appointments, reminders, and telemedicine consultations.
Problems and barriers
Low–medium
Key problems: technical application failures, insufficient message personalization, and lack of integration with electronic medical records.
LB: Conceptualization, Investigation, Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing. IM: Conceptualization, Investigation, Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing. AR: Validation, Writing—review & editing, Supervision. All authors read and approved the submitted version.
Conflicts of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.
Ethical approval
The study involved an anonymous patient survey and semi-structured expert interviews focusing on the digital patient journey. No personal identifiers or sensitive medical data were collected, and participation posed no risk to participants.
In accordance with national regulations and institutional guidelines, formal ethical approval from an ethics committee or institutional review board was not required, as the study was based on voluntary, anonymous participation and did not involve any medical intervention or collection of identifiable data.
The research was conducted in full compliance with the ethical principles of the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki (2013), including respect for participants, voluntariness, confidentiality, and protection of personal information.
Consent to participate
All participants provided informed consent prior to participation in the study. For patients, informed consent was obtained electronically before completing the questionnaire. For expert participants, informed consent was obtained prior to the interviews. Participation was voluntary, and participants were informed about the purpose of the study, the anonymous nature of data collection, and their right to withdraw at any time without consequences.
Consent to publication
Not applicable.
Availability of data and materials
The datasets generated and analyzed during the current study are not publicly available due to confidentiality and anonymity assurances given to participants. Aggregated anonymized survey data on digital services in medical tourism, collected via Google Forms, are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Funding
This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
Open Exploration maintains a neutral stance on jurisdictional claims in published institutional affiliations and maps. All opinions expressed in this article are the personal views of the author(s) and do not represent the stance of the editorial team or the publisher.
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