Online reputation and visibility: the role of the web in supporting medical tourism

Can visibility and online reputation impact on medical tourism choices? How can hospitals gain this visibility within the Web? Through a Web analysis of some well-known Italian hospitals, we develop an exploratory analysis. The study aims to develop a deeper understanding of the role that online reputation and visibility within the Web can play on medical journeys choices, in particular on domestic medical tourism. We found that visibility impacts on the ability of hospitals to attract the interest also of geographically more distant users. However, we found also that the most common rankings of online reputation (Google and QSalute ratings) don’t match with this attraction ability. Therefore, in the conclusion section we illustrate an innovative project, Ihealthyou, a marketplace for tackling the cross-border health mobility and providing patients with reliable easy access to high-quality medical care in Europe.