RESUMEN
OBJECTIVE: Medical tourism is a practice that involves patients intentional travel to privately obtain medical services in another country. Our objective was to consult with diverse lawyers from across Barbados to explore their views on the prospective legal and regulatory implications of the countrys developing medical tourism industry. DESIGN AND METHODS: After recruiting participants through local legal societies and local networks, we held a focus group in February 2014 in Bridgetown with nine lawyers with diverse legal backgrounds. Focus group moderators summarized the study objective and engaged participants in identifying the local implications of medical tourism and the anticipated legal and regulatory concerns. The focus group discussion was transcribed verbatim and analyzed thematically. RESULTS: Five dominant legal and regulatory themes were identified: (1) liability; (2) immigration law; (3) physician licensing; (4) corporate ownership; and (5) reputational protection. Two predominant ethico-legal concerns raised by participants are also heavily reflected in the existing literature: the ability of medical tourists to recover medical malpractice from physicians practicing in Barbados for adverse events; and the effects of medical tourism on local citizens access to health care in the destination country. CONCLUSIONS: Overall this analysis reveals that lawyers in Barbados have an important role to play in the medical tourism sector beyond litigation particularly in transactional and gatekeeper capacities. It remains to be seen whether these findings are specific to Barbados or can be extrapolated to other medical tourism destination countries in the Anglophone Caribbean and beyond.