Purpose

The technological advances in the Industrial Revolution (IR) 4.0 era escalate the advancement of the healthcare industry, including the health tourism phenomenon. Based on the current trend in connected health care (e.g. mobile healthcare technology; digital health, etc.), this paper aims to propose that the distance between healthcare providers around the globe and its potential patients can be vastly reduced to almost on a real time basis.

Design/methodology/approach

A secondary literature review is conducted to identify the key development of IR 4.0 technologies in the healthcare industry and its possible trend leading the health tourism sector.

Findings

The adoption of IR 4.0 technologies is expected to make seeking treatments overseas more affordable, accessible and health records readily available on a real-time and secured basis. However, it is worth to note that the growth of health tourism raises the eyebrows of society from the security, social and economic perspectives.

Originality/value

This paper contributes to our understanding that the emergence of IR 4.0 technologies changes the landscape of the health care and health tourism industry. Continuous technology advancement is expected to further shape the future trend and escalate the commercialization aspect of the health tourism industry.

中文翻译：

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工业革命4.0时代健康旅游的未来

目的

工业革命 (IR) 4.0 时代的技术进步推动了医疗保健行业的进步，包括健康旅游现象。基于当前互联医疗的趋势（例如移动医疗技术；数字健康等），本文旨在提出全球医疗保健提供者与其潜在患者之间的距离可以大大缩短到几乎实时基础。

设计/方法/方法

进行了二次文献回顾，以确定医疗保健行业 IR 4.0 技术的关键发展及其引领健康旅游行业的可能趋势。

发现

IR 4.0 技术的采用有望使在海外寻求治疗变得更实惠、更容易获得，并且可以实时和安全地获得健康记录。然而，值得注意的是，健康旅游的增长从安全、社会和经济的角度引起了社会的关注。

原创性/价值

本文有助于我们理解 IR 4.0 技术的出现改变了医疗保健和健康旅游行业的格局。预计持续的技术进步将进一步塑造未来趋势并升级健康旅游行业的商业化方面。