Health Citizenship

The discursive strategies of travel journalism have garnered a good deal of academic interest. However, the focus as predominantly been on how Western, particularly British and American, travel journalism discursively constructs its others. What of travel journalism produced in non-western regions of the world? How does are cultural differences represent and how are specific practices of tourism promoted? This chapter explores these lines of enquiry in the context of Malaysian travel journalism. It focuses on online travel content produced in the country's three largest English language newspapers, the New Straits Times, The Star and the Malay Mail. Consideration is given to the ways in which these newspapers represent tourist destinations, both regional and Western tourist destinations. It finds that whilst established western representational practices tend to predominate, there are instances where distinctly Malaysian modes are deployed. This contributes to an understanding of how Malaysia constructs an image of itself in the context of global tourism. This is also revealing of distinctly Malaysian tourism practices and the ways in which established western discourses of aspiration, luxury, nature and primitivism are refigured for Malaysian readerships.

As a product of nineteenth-century bourgeois society, psychiatry developed in a dynamic between social-political integration and exclusion. Into the twentieth century, institutional psychiatry fulfilled two functions: a medical one (care and cure), which gave priority to the interests of patients, and a social-political one (segregation), which was geared toward freeing society of the nuisance and danger associated with the insane. Which function was most prominent varied with a country’s political constellation. From around 1840 various West-European countries adopted legal regulations for the institutionalization of the insane. Within the margins of the constitutional state, they served to protect citizens against random deprivation of freedom and to allow for effective admission procedures to ensure public order as well as medical treatment for mental patients. The hospitalized insane fell under special jurisdiction and state supervision, which implied a suspension of their civic rights. The liberal contract society assumed autonomous individuals who were capable of serving their own rights and interests while respecting those of others. Liberalism linked citizenship to rationality, autonomy, and responsibility, which were precisely the qualities mental patients had to do without. Mental incapacity counted in fact as the opposite of citizenship as it had been articulated on the basis of the ideals of freedom and equality since the American and French Revolutions. The relationship between institutional psychiatry and liberal-democratic citizenship was ‘negative’ or ‘exclusive’ in the sense that hospitalization in an asylum generally required legal certification and therefore the loss of basic civil rights. In the course of the twentieth century, however, a more ‘positive’ or ‘inclusive’ connection between psychiatry and citizenship was established in two ways. Firstly, the last three decades of the last century saw a growing recognition of the civil rights of the mentally ill, reflecting a shift from values associated with maintaining law and order to values associated with mental patients’ autonomy and consent. Secondly, from the early twentieth century on, in psychiatry as well as in the broader field of mental health care, psychological definitions of citizenship were advanced. Expressing views about the position of individuals in modern society and their possibilities for self-development, psychiatrists and other mental health workers connected mental health to ideals of democratic citizenship. Thus, they were clearly involved in the liberal-democratic project of promoting not only productive, responsible and adaptive citizens, but also autonomous, self-conscious, and emancipated individuals. In this article I focus on the development of mental health care in the Netherlands from the late nineteenth to the early twenty-first century in order to explore its relation to socio-political modernization in general and changing meanings of citizenship in particular. Citizenship took on a broad meaning, not just in terms of political rights and duties, but also in the context of material, social, psychological, and moral conditions that individuals should meet in order to develop themselves and be able to act according to those rights and duties in a responsible way. On the basis of the four different ideals of self-development that I identify, my account is divided into four periods: 1870-1945 (self-development through social adaptation), 1945-1965 (guided self-development), 1965-1985 (spontaneous self-development), and 1985-2005 (autonomous self-development). In the last section I will elaborate some more general characteristics of Dutch mental health care in its socio-political context.

Os autores fizeram a revisao retrospectiva de 65 processos de jovens enviados a Consulta de Endocrinologia Pediatrica por atraso pubertario durante um periodo de 10 anos. O diagnostico foi confirmado em 27 jovens e em 38 a observacao e a evolucao permitiram demonstrar que aquele nao existia. Nos doentes com atraso pubertario, a idade media de referencia a consulta foi 14,6 ± 3,3 anos (media ± DP) e o tempo medio de seguimento foi 3,2 ± 3,0 anos. Os doentes com atraso pubertario comprovado dividiram-se por 3 grupos etiologicos: hipogonadismo temporario incluindo o atraso constitucional de maturacao e anemias cronicas; situacoes hipergonadotroficas e hipogonadotroficas permanentes. Analisaram-se as caracteristicas de cada grupo etiologico. Em 5 casos de hipogonadismo temporario e em 7 de condicoes permanentes foi feito tratamento; a idade cronologica e a idade ossea medias no inicio da terapeutica eram 17,4 ± 2,5 anos e 12,9 ± 1,3 anos respectivamente. Os autores concluem, de acordo c...

Mauritius although known for its tourism worldwide has reached a stagnating phase due to its reliance on the traditional sea, sand and sun concept; leading led to the branching of tourism industry towards medical tourism. This paper aims at identifying the limiting and precipitating factors in the Mauritian medical tourism industry; and tailor market-driven strategies in line with the governmental policies, ensuring a sustainable growth of this sector and most importantly remove trans-boundary barriers to medical services offered in Mauritius. A qualitative approach was used through face-to-face interviews with stakeholders from the private and public sector, inclusive of the main body regulating foreign investment and access to local medical platforms. Individuals within the category of medical tourists were also interviewed. Questions were formulated and systematically administered based on the SWOT framework. The Mauritian government is incentivizing this sector as reflected by t...

Mauritius although known for its tourism worldwide has reached a stagnating phase due to its reliance on the traditional sea, sand and sun concept; leading led to the branching of tourism industry towards medical tourism. This paper aims at identifying the limiting and precipitating factors in the Mauritian medical tourism industry; and tailor market-driven strategies in line with the governmental policies, ensuring a sustainable growth of this sector and most importantly remove trans-boundary barriers to medical services offered in Mauritius. A qualitative approach was used through face-to-face interviews with stakeholders from the private and public sector, inclusive of the main body regulating foreign investment and access to local medical platforms. Individuals within the category of medical tourists were also interviewed. Questions were formulated and systematically administered based on the SWOT framework. The Mauritian government is incentivizing this sector as reflected by t...

A puberdade é um período de transição da infância e fase adulta caracterizado por mudanças biológicas e fisiológicas que levam à maturação sexual. Sendo assim, é importante destacar a relação entre esse período e as pessoas transexuais com disforia de gênero (GID). Este artigo tem como objetivo analisar a supressão da puberdade em pessoas com transtorno de identidade de gênero, baseada no uso de hormônios análogos do GnRH, que bloqueiam a ação do eixo hipotálamo-hipófise-gônadas. Foi realizada uma revisão de literatura, com consulta em: Scientific Eletronic Library Online (SciELO), United States National Library of Medicine (PubMed) e Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online (MEDLINE). Os resultados ilustram que o tratamento de púberes transexuais com os hormônios análogos do GnRH deve ocorrer no estágio 2 de Tanner e ser realizado até os 16 anos de idade. Entretanto, estudos ainda estão sendo realizados em relação ao desenvolvimento cerebral de indivíduos transexuais que optam pela supressão da puberdade. Conclui-se que o transtorno de identidade de gênero é agravado pelo início da puberdade e o tratamento de supressão em transexuais têm-se mostrado seguro, além de proporcionar tempo suficiente para o autoconhecimento e a definição de tratamentos subsequentes ao bloqueio, como a decisão pelas intervenções para a mudança efetiva de sexo. Palavras-Chaves: puberdade, transexuais, transtorno de identidade de gênero, supressão da puberdade, disforia de gênero.

Mauritius although known for its tourism worldwide has reached a stagnating phase due to its reliance on the traditional sea, sand and sun concept; leading led to the branching of tourism industry towards medical tourism. This paper aims at identifying the limiting and precipitating factors in the Mauritian medical tourism industry; and tailor market-driven strategies in line with the governmental policies, ensuring a sustainable growth of this sector and most importantly remove trans-boundary barriers to medical services offered in Mauritius. A qualitative approach was used through face-to-face interviews with stakeholders from the private and public sector, inclusive of the main body regulating foreign investment and access to local medical platforms. Individuals within the category of medical tourists were also interviewed. Questions were formulated and systematically administered based on the SWOT framework. The Mauritian government is incentivizing this sector as reflected by t...

Australian company’s recent acquisition of JobStreet’s assets raises the question of whether Malaysia is exposing its sensitive data to foreign companies. While mergers and acquisitions (M&As) are part of doing business and cannot be avoided or controlled by the authorities, are Malaysian companies inevitably exposing data deemed sensitive to foreigners? To what extent are these companies and even government agencies revealing strategic information by allowing them access to data that carry financial, economic and security value?

Το παρόν έγγραφο μπορεί να αποθηκευτεί και να αναπαραχθεί για προσωπική και ακαδημαϊκή χρήση. Το έργο αυτό προστατεύεται από άδεια πνευματικών δικαιωμάτων Creative Commons Αναφορά Δημιουργού-Μη Εμπορική Χρήση-Όχι Παράγωγα Έργα 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND). Επιτρέπεται στο κοινό να έχει ελεύθερη πρόσβαση στο έργο και να το διανέμει εφόσον γίνει αναφορά στο πρωτότυπο έργο και τον δημιουργό του, ωστόσο, απαγορεύεται οποιαδήποτε τροποποίησή του ή τυχόν παράγωγα έργα, καθώς και η χρήση, αξιοποίηση ή αναδιανομή του για εμπορικούς σκοπούς.

The concept of patient-centeredness in the Malaysian medical tourism certified hospitals is the commonly preached topic amongst providers. However, there is hardly any nationwide research on medical tourism let alone health communication in Malaysia. Studies have shown that provider-patient communication significantly influences the satisfaction level and health outcomes and ultimately the behavioural intentions of the patients. As such, this research was designed to look at the sub-populations of medical tourists in Malaysia and to understand the differences that exist in these subpopulations. The results indicated that there were slight differences amongst the Indonesians and Singaporeans. The Indonesians were more loyal yet vocal as compared to the Singaporeans. On top of that there were more Indonesians that sought treatments in haematology, oncology, endocrinology, cardiology, and neurology. The results also revealed that Indonesians were more likely to rely on friends, agents, and media to gather information about medical tourism industry in Malaysia. More research needs to be done to understand the medical tourists in Malaysia in order for the providers to stay competitive.

With a rapid growth of medical tourism in the country, the Malaysian Government is under pressure to make the sector of benefit to the public healthcare services. Purpose: This paper attempts to deepen the understanding of the development of medical tourism on destination countries� healthcare systems and the effect toward economy growth. Methodology: Mix methods were applied in the paper with data for the duration of 2000 � 2015 obtained from sources including Malaysia Health Tourism Council (MHTC) and World Bank Indicators. Analysis of the paper includes t-test of gross national products and medical tourism receipts. The paper also shares strategies needed for effective promotion of medical tourism in a medical tourism decision model. Findings: The result shows that ASEAN Economic Community is likely to bring in higher trade volumes in health services. This paper concludes that medical tourism plays an important role in economy by tripling medical tourism receipts to RM900 million...

Australian company’s recent acquisition of JobStreet’s assets raises the question of whether Malaysia is exposing its sensitive data to foreign companies. While mergers and acquisitions (M&As) are part of doing business and cannot be avoided or controlled by the authorities, are Malaysian companies inevitably exposing data deemed sensitive to foreigners? To what extent are these companies and even government agencies revealing strategic information by allowing them access to data that carry financial, economic and security value?

This study aims to measure the prevalence of reproductive health services accessibility based on the perception of Indonesian migrant female workers in Malaysia and its influencing factors. A cross-sectional study was conducted among the 593 respondents using a semi-guided questionnaire. Participation for this study came from Kuala Lumpur (230 respondents), Johor Bahru (181 respondents) and Penang (182 respondents). The mean age was 26.8 (SD 6.7) years. Their origin area in Indonesia was from Central Java, North Sumatra, and East Java. The prevalence of easy access to reproductive health services was 66.9%. Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that marital status (aOR=0.389, 95% CI:0.201, p=0.751), good reproductive health knowledge (aOR=1.123,95%CI:1.071,1.177), depression (aOR=0.934, 95%CI:0.884, p=0.986) were the predictors for the good perceptions of reproductive health services accessibility in Peninsular Malaysia. This study depicted that two-third of Indonesian migran...

This study analysed the websites of the panel hospitals under the Malaysia Healthcare Tourism Council (MHTC) to determine their readability level. Thirty-three hospitals fulfilled the criteria for this study. SMOG and FOG readability formulae were used in this research. The study shows that there was a significantly positive correlation between FOG and SMOG. Using FOG and SMOG indices, it was found that the reading level of most of the ‘About-us’ sections was too difficult to the majority of the readers.

Muslim-friendly tourism or halal tourism is an industry targeted by the Indonesian government. This is also created as an opportunity for the halal healthcare tourism industry. Previous studies in Indonesia have been conducted in the area of halal tourism. However, limited study has focused on halal healthcare tourism. This paper aimed to examine the challenges and prospects of halal healthcare tourism in Indonesia from nurses’ perspectives. Methods, this qualitative study applied the descriptive approach. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to 10 nurses from different hospitals in West Java and South Sumatra provinces. The snowball sampling technique was used to recruit participants. Data from the interviews were analyzed using the Comparative Analysis for Interview technique to find the study themes. Results, three themes emerged from the data analysis including the concept of halal healthcare tourisms is applied in health services, barriers in developing halal healthcare to...

Globalization has transformed medical tourism into a booming revenue generating industry in many Southeast Asian (SEA) countries. One of the sub-sectors of tourism that contributed significantly towards their economic development was medical tourism. Medical tourism has attracted medical tourists from other parts of the world to the SEA region seeking medical attention and care. Among the SEA countries that are sought after for medical tourism in Malaysia. Medical tourism is rapidly expanding niche area and Malaysia has successfully claimed its position as one of the most preferred medical tourism destinations. The country has now emerged as the 3 preferred medical tourism destination among SEA nations that offers competitive medical care and facilities. Thus, the objective of this paper is to examine the key drivers behind the impressive landscape of medical tourism development in Malaysia. This paper offers a discussion on the development of medical tourism in Malaysia based on th...

Muslim-friendly tourism or halal tourism is an industry targeted by the Indonesian government. This is also created as an opportunity for the halal healthcare tourism industry. Previous studies in Indonesia have been conducted in the area of halal tourism. However, limited study has focused on halal healthcare tourism. This paper aimed to examine the challenges and prospects of halal healthcare tourism in Indonesia from nurses’ perspectives. Methods, this qualitative study applied the descriptive approach. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to 10 nurses from different hospitals in West Java and South Sumatra provinces. The snowball sampling technique was used to recruit participants. Data from the interviews were analyzed using the Comparative Analysis for Interview technique to find the study themes. Results, three themes emerged from the data analysis including the concept of halal healthcare tourisms is applied in health services, barriers in developing halal healthcare to...

Medical tourism has grown rapidly due to the increased costs in developed countries. This trend created an opportunity for undeveloped or developing countries to bring foreign exchange which is vital for their economies. That’s why, medical tourism and government incentives has been evaluated as a direction example for national economy development. Undeveloped and developing countries can direct the investment of private sector to medical tourism in order to maximize their service export revenue and increase competitiveness by using government incentives.

As a new step in diversifying the market, South Korea makes Muslim-friendly tourism policy as a form of public diplomacy that is implemented to attract Muslim tourists in the world. Indonesia which has the majority of the Muslim societyis a potential market for Muslim-friendly tourism. By the Strategic Communication South Korean Government is trying to provide facilities for Muslim tourists to visit South Korea through Muslim Friendly Korea campaign. This study aims to explain public diplomacy between South Korea and Indonesia through the Muslim Friendly Korea campaign and the implications of Muslim Friendly Korea campaign as a form of South Korean Public Diplomacy, as well as the people to people relationships that are built between the South Korea and Indonesia Society. This study uses a case study method with a qualitative approach, the results of this study are people to people relationship that was built between the South Korea and Indonesia Society goes well and the Muslim Fri...

Globalization has transformed medical tourism into a booming revenue generating industry in many Southeast Asian (SEA) countries. One of the sub-sectors of tourism that contributed significantly towards their economic development was medical tourism. Medical tourism has attracted medical tourists from other parts of the world to the SEA region seeking medical attention and care. Among the SEA countries that are sought after for medical tourism in Malaysia. Medical tourism is rapidly expanding niche area and Malaysia has successfully claimed its position as one of the most preferred medical tourism destinations. The country has now emerged as the 3 preferred medical tourism destination among SEA nations that offers competitive medical care and facilities. Thus, the objective of this paper is to examine the key drivers behind the impressive landscape of medical tourism development in Malaysia. This paper offers a discussion on the development of medical tourism in Malaysia based on th...

UK, Australian and US standards has been used as basis for Malaysian healthcare standards revised over time. Towards a caring healthcare environment for Malaysian, the Ministry of Health Malaysia had formed several committees within its organisation and affiliated ministry as well as the healthcare industry to set a truly Malaysian Standard for Malaysian. For this research, Labour Delivery Room (LDR) has been chosen as the case study in view of its purpose to assist in the natural process of birthing that normally happened at home among relatives and birth attendant which are now being carried out in a man-made hospital environment by government midwifes and doctors. Birthing as a socio-cultural process involving family members and certain rituals for ease of birth, hypothetically requires more than just clinical settings. Towards humanizing the space for its purpose, the needs of patient, clinical staff, technical/ maintenance staff and relatives as users of the space should be the criteria in assessing its human-effectiveness. However due to limitation of time, this study can initially compare the LDRs provided within existing selected Malaysian public healthcare facilities in terms of area, space configuration, usability (clinical procedure) and physical environment. Through questionnaire surveys with traditional birth attendants and local population (young and elderly mothers), literature review and observations, hypothetically a basic criteria on "humane environment for Malaysian LDR' could be formulated. This criterion will be used to gauge existing local LDRS of its caring environment before comparison to international standards for any significant differences could be made. The outcome of this research shall be a step towards realising the necessary ingredients towards a humane environment not only in LDR design but in many other healthcare spaces for Malaysian.

This article is a revised and expanded version of the author’s keynote address for the inaugural International Conference on Politics and International Studies (ICPIS) 2018, held in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia. The title reflects the official theme of the said scholarly congregation, which deliberates on the contested notions of globalisation and the phenomenon’s related outcomes, including its much touted hegemonic, universal liberal qualities, which have elicited a backlash that has seen the revival of nationalism and identity politics during the last few decades. That globalisation has arrived at a crossroads and the thought of what might lie ahead is what this paper seeks to ponder, through the prism and critique of both recent as well as older works by the likes of Francis Fukuyama, Charles Taylor, Wang Gungwu and Samuel P. Huntington. More specifically, it critically explores the evolution and progress of globalisation from both historical and international relations (IR) p...

This research discusses the comparison of food diplomacy halal strategy conducted by Japan and South Korea. Japan and South Korea were selected in this study as both countries in the last five years showed increased activity in promoting their halal products. This research focuses on answering the question of how to compare the halal strategy food diplomacy Japan and South Korea? This research is a qualitative study with data gathered through interviews and observations of documents and sources of Internet both primary and secondary data. Data in analysis with content analysis techniques. To discuss the results of the study, researchers used two concepts of public diplomacy and gastro diplomacy or food diplomacy.

This study analysed the websites of the panel hospitals under the Malaysia Healthcare Tourism Council (MHTC) to determine their readability level. Thirty-three hospitals fulfilled the criteria for this study. SMOG and FOG readability formulae were used in this research. The study shows that there was a significantly positive correlation between FOG and SMOG. Using FOG and SMOG indices, it was found that the reading level of most of the 'About-us' sections was too difficult to the majority of the readers.

Increasingly as doctors, we are expected to take on leadership and stewardship of patient issues and enhance human dignity. We are exhorted to more directly impact on society so that our professionalism, our acclaimed ethical bearings can be put to better use. Some have even insisted that we take on the lead in advising policy makers i.e. engage with politicians or even politics. Although some of us more traditional physicians may baulk at this idea, it is good to note that even as early as in the mid-nineteenth century (1848), physician-pathologist Rudolf Virchow had said that “Politics is nothing more than medicine on a grand scale.” Increasingly, more people expect the medical profession to become more socially engaged, politically involved even. Being among the more favoured and endowed cognoscenti, we should lead in matters not just pertaining to health and health care reform, but perhaps to even actively shape its ultimate form and function. But should we just limit ourselves ...

The purpose of this study was to analyze the perception of tourist muslin on infrastructure facilities to support halal tourism in Malaysia. The type of research used is qualitative descriptive research, with accidental sampling techniques, where the sample is Muslim tourists who were met at the time of the research. Data collection techniques used are interviews and documentation, then the data obtained are analyzed using descriptive methods to present the facts encountered during the research process. The results show that in terms of facilities, such as transportation, accommodation, food, places of worship are very easy to reach and support the implementation of halal tourism. In terms of supporting infrastructure has also been very good, seen from the smooth flow of transportation and communication for Muslim tourists in the city of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. So, the perception of Muslim tourists on the facilities for supporting halal tourism in the City of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia has been very good and in accordance with the standard facilities for supporting halal tourism infrastructure, as well as increasing tourists' insight into Islamic culture in Southeast Asia.

This study has examined the effect of trust and religiosity on Islamic medical tourists’ attitudes, and consequently, satisfaction by considering age, gender, and education as moderators. A survey was undertaken of 227 Muslim medical tourists who had been treated in Islamic hospitals in Iran, and the data were analysed using partial least
squares techniques. The results showed that although trust has a significant effect on Muslim medical tourists’ attitudes, religiosity has no significant effect. The relationship between attitude and satisfaction towards the Islamic medical treatment practised by the healthcare providers is also supported. Gender and education moderate the relationship between religiosity and attitude. In addition, education moderates the relationship between trust and attitude. The results of this research can provide useful insight into the needs of Muslim medical tourists, which would be useful for Islamic hospitals to provide higher quality healthcare services.

Identity has continuously been a topic in Malaysian public discourse since the foundation of the Malaysian nation in 1957. This research paper is following the terminological connotations of identity in Malaysia through the analysis of Malaysian print media and publicly accessible written material with the objective to discover continuity and change in a national concept of visionary status. The qualitative method of assessing public opinions by way of corpus analysis is expected to support the hypothesis that identity in Malaysia has been changing from ethnically dominated particulars through state enforced intervention to a wider and more general meaning that reaches across the social context of ethnic, religious and political constraints towards a cosmopolitan and global composure of diversity. Following academic trials and tribulations of interdisciplinary nature such process confirms the theoretical evidence that complex societies will never sustain officially administrated ideological visions of national identity.

This study seeks to analysis some of major features of the phenomenon that dramatically appeared by influx of West Asian visitors to Malaysia that had evolved out the aftermath of September 11 and London Bombing. Data had been collected from a year field works, from mid-2007 to mid-2008, in Klang Valley, Langkawi, Penang, Cameron Highlands, Genting Highlands and a few tourist spots in the east coast of Peninsula. This study indicates that there are two major scenarios in Malaysian tourism: First, with the increasing number of their coming since 2001, the emerging West Asian tourist markets not only of the future with huge economic, demographic and destination potentials to Malaysia, but also has created Islamic feature in Malaysian tourism. Secondly, they have brought economic structural change in Malaysia tourism with the emergence of Islamic entrepreneurs as new players in the industry. In short, they have reconstructed toward more Islamic tourism in Malaysia in both sides, the demand and the supply.

The growth of global medical tourism in the recent years had spurred the interest of many governments to join in the bandwagon, particularly from Asia. Using the SWOT analytical model, this paper provides pertinent comparative analysis of the medical tourism destinations here being Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and India. Each destination possesses its own value propositions to convince the demands of medical tourists. Malaysia and Thailand have a good mixture of elements (medical, tourism and wellness) to be an excellent medical tourism destination while Singapore and India need further development in some of these elements. Meeting or exceeding the medical tourists' expectations and requirements are the priority of medical tourism destination marketers in ensuring a successful medical tourism industry development.

Recensão do artigo:
Vrouenraets, L., Fredriks, A., Hannema, S., Cohen-Kettenis, P., de Vries, M. (2016). Perceptions of Sex, Gender, and Puberty Suppression: A Qualitative Analysis of Transgender Youth. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 45, 1697-1703.

Tourism has been recognized as one of the major contributors to the Malaysian economy. Among its sub-segment is the healthcare tourism, also known as medical tourism. Tourist's primary travel intentions basically to seek treatment while spending time recuperating at the host destination. Extensive document analysis and review of the current and prevailing data & literature has indicated that the total number of healthcare facilities are adequate to accommodate the increasing number of potential medical tourist, which are located in the tourism hotspot in Malaysia such as the Klang Valley, Pulau Pinang, Melaka and Johor Bahru. The number of healthcare facilities is supplemented with the fitting number of physician and healthcare professionals. Future outlook for Malaysia healthcare tourism are promising with increment in tourist arrival in this niche are expected in 2017 and beyond.

The aim of this study is to investigate the factors that influence to Muslim tourists' intention to revisit Islamic-friendly hospital. This study contributes practice and management implications that assist in motivating Islamic medical tourism service. As the objective of this paper is to measure the Muslim medical tourists' perception for Islamic medical tourism services in Malaysia, this study applied partial least square (PLS) technique to test the conceptual model. Data is collected using structural questionnaire from Islamic-friendly hospital in Kuala Lumpur. The sample included 238 effective Muslim medical tourists who had visited Malaysia. The results show that healthcare providers' behaviour, Shariah compliance practices, healthcare ethics and safety/security have a positive impact on attitudes and satisfaction. In contrast, healthcare ethics has no significant relationship with satisfaction, whilst, attitudes have a significant relationship with satisfaction. In addition, the results also revealed that attitudes and satisfaction have a significant impact on intention to revisit towards Islamic-friendly hospital. Malaysia needs to introduce and promote Islamic-friendly medical tourism services attracting more Muslim patients from different Muslim and non-Muslim countries. This study contributes a foundation for future research for Islamic-friendly medical tourism service delivery perception and expectations in the fast increasing medical service tourism industry.

Purpose – Emerging interest in medical tourism products offers a lucrative market and tremendous open doors for Malaysia in positioning itself as a Muslim preferred halal medical care center point. In spite of the tremendous capability of this industry, the Muslim friendly medical tourism practice is rationally new idea, with endeavors to clarify such tourism product is inadequate. The reason for this paper is to investigate the promoting Muslim friendly medical tourism market mechanism and its prospects and challenges.
Design/methodology/approach – As the purpose of this study is to investigate the perceptions of the Muslim patient’s inspiration towards Muslim friendly medical tourism market mechanism in Malaysia. This study uses Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) technique for data analysis. The target population for this research comprised of the Muslim medical tourists coming to Malaysia seeking Muslim friendly medical tourism. A total sample size of 231 is gathered through non-probability sampling method during the period between July and December 2015.
Findings – The outcome confirms that Muslim tourist’s perceptions play a critical part in travel intention to Malaysia for Muslim friendly medication. Along these lines, Malaysia needs to promote such medical tourism success with proper practice and services they offer to pull in more outside patients.
Practical implications – Malaysia is a country that has long been a stronghold for Muslim leisure visitors. Differences in general and spiritual values raise challenges to Muslim friendly medical care services. A comprehensive research is required on the best way to advance and set up emerging Muslim friendly medical tourism market mechanism.
Originality/value – Muslim friendly medical tourism is a rising advertising discipline. It is confident that the findings could expand information on Muslim friendly medical tourism service sector and improve providers' capacity to take advantage of the developing business sector, offering quality medical care services and opportunities that suit the Muslim patients' needs. In addition, it is essential that how to most ideal approach to outline Muslim friendly medical tourism market to make it more useful to various spiritual and religious accept.

Muslim medical tourists' satisfaction is dependent on doctors and hospitals roles. Nurses' halal practices had no effect on Muslim medical tourists' satisfaction. Attitude mediates the effect of hospital halal practice and patients' satisfaction. a b s t r a c t This paper examines the factors affecting the Muslim medical tourists' satisfaction, and the role of their attitudes in shaping their clinical experience based on the expectation-disconfirmation paradigm. Data from a survey of 243 Muslim medical tourists who had received treatment from Malaysian Islamic friendly hospitals were analysed using the partial least squares technique. The findings provide evidence that Muslim medical tourists' satisfaction is dependent on the doctors' and hospitals' roles; whilst, the nurse's halal practice is not associated with it. The study also demonstrates that Muslim medical tourists' attitudes only play a mediator role between the hospital's halal practice and Muslim medical tourists' satisfaction. The research result provides useful information in understanding the critical halal practices and, more particularly, aims at helping Islamic hospitals offer quality healthcare services that suit the Muslim medical tourists' needs and, consequently, attracts the Islamic medical tourists.

UK, Australian and US standards has been used as basis for Malaysian healthcare standards revised over time. Towards a caring healthcare environment for Malaysian, the Ministry of Health Malaysia had formed several committees within its organisation and affiliated ministry as well as the healthcare industry to set a truly Malaysian Standard for Malaysian. For this research, Labour Delivery Room (LDR) has been chosen as the case study in view of its purpose to assist in the natural process of birthing that normally happened at home among relatives and birth attendant which are now being carried out in a man-made hospital environment by government midwifes and doctors. Birthing as a socio-cultural process involving family members and certain rituals for ease of birth, hypothetically requires more than just clinical settings. Towards humanizing the space for its purpose, the needs of patient, clinical staff, technical/ maintenance staff and relatives as users of the space should be the...

s This paper examined edu-tourism policy strategies and instruments of key edu-tourist recruiting countries in the SouthEast Asia, and identified its emerging implications on sustainable edu-tourism industry in Malaysia. The article is targeted at Malaysian edu-tourism policymakers both at national and institutional levels, edu-tourism marketing officers and researchers in the area of international edu-tourism management. The methodology adopted involves analyses of national policies strategies and instruments for key international edu-tourist recruitment countries such as Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand. The choice of these four countries is due to their active participation in international edu-tourist recruitment, including their similarity in term of size and edu-tourism system. The findings shows that among the four countries under focus, Singapore is fairly comparable with Malaysia in terms of population and participation in international edu-tourism in the SouthEast Asia sub-region. In terms of policy strategies and instruments of the four countries studied, only Singapore seems to have an edge over Malaysia. The implication of the above information is that Singapore may soon take the leading position as edu-tourism destination of choice in the SouthEast Asia among international edu-tourists if urgent step are not being taken to strengthen and make Malaysian edu-tourism policy strategies and instruments more attractive to international edu-tourists. In terms of edu-tourism competitive index, the Philippines, Thailand, and Indonesia are not comparable with Malaysia, however, Singapore does, hence, full liberalization policy, and provision of incentive schemes are encouraged for Malaysian edu-tourism industry to achieve being an edu-tourism hub of the SouthEast Asia. In respect to quality assurance and assessment development for world-class programmes, all the four countries have unique initiatives capable of strengthening the quality of edu-tourism services offered in the sub-region. The implication of this for Malaysia is urgent adoption of edu-tourism programme quality assurance re-engineering capable of differentiating the country's edu-tourism service offerings in the sub-region.

This is an overview of the regulatory framework of competition law in Malaysia following the implementation of the Competition Act 2010 and the Competition Commission Act 2010.

This paper was published in Volume 2 of the Malayan Law Journal for 2013. It can be cited as: [2013] 2 MLJ xxiii

This study analysed the websites of the panel hospitals under the Malaysia Healthcare Tourism Council (MHTC) to determine their readability level. Thirty-three hospitals fulfilled the criteria for this study. SMOG and FOG readability formulae were used in this research. The study shows that there was a significantly positive correlation between FOG and SMOG. Using FOG and SMOG indices, it was found that the reading level of most of the ‘About-us’ sections was too difficult to the majority of the readers.

This study seeks to analysis some of major features of the phenomenon that dramatically appeared by influx of West Asian visitors to Malaysia that had evolved out the aftermath of September 11 and London Bombing. Data had been collected from a year field works, from mid-2007 to mid-2008, in Klang Valley, Langkawi, Penang, Cameron Highlands, Genting Highlands and a few tourist spots in the east coast of Peninsula. This study indicates that there are two major scenarios in Malaysian tourism: First, with the increasing number of their coming since 2001, the emerging West Asian tourist markets not only of the future with huge economic, demographic and destination potentials to Malaysia, but also has created Islamic feature in Malaysian tourism. Secondly, they have brought economic structural change in Malaysia tourism with the emergence of Islamic entrepreneurs as new players in the industry. In short, they have reconstructed toward more Islamic tourism in Malaysia in both sides, the demand and the supply.

This study seeks to analysis some of major features of the phenomenon that dramatically appeared by influx of West Asian visitors to Malaysia that had evolved out the aftermath of September 11 and London Bombing. Data had been collected from a year field works, from mid-2007 to mid-2008, in Klang Valley, Langkawi, Penang, Cameron Highlands, Genting Highlands and a few tourist spots in the east coast of Peninsula. This study indicates that there are two major scenarios in Malaysian tourism: First, with the increasing number of their coming since 2001, the emerging West Asian tourist markets not only of the future with huge economic, demographic and destination potentials to Malaysia, but also has created Islamic feature in Malaysian tourism. Secondly, they have brought economic structural change in Malaysia tourism with the emergence of Islamic entrepreneurs as new players in the industry. In short, they have reconstructed toward more Islamic tourism in Malaysia in both sides, the demand and the supply.