Medical tourism has been on the agenda in recent years. Tourists, who receive a wide range of health services from simple medical operations to serious surgical interventions, are in great demand in Turkey to receive these services as a result of basic factors such as cost, waiting time, privacy, and confidentiality. Lect. Zeynep Özcan from Istanbul Gelisim Vocational School, Public Relations and Promotion Program: “Social media has an important position in medical tourism. Apart from agencies, medical tourists also research social media. The phenomenon doctors, who create a perception of "emotional bond" with patients, may be effective in the preference processes of patients.
“They create a perception of emotional bond”
The widespread use of social media in society has popularized various professions and has also affected people's preferences. One of them is medicine for sure. Lect. Zeynep Özcan continues her words as follows: “We see that doctors who specialize in various medical sub-fields such as aesthetic surgery, general surgery, obstetrics, pediatrics, cardiovascular diseases, brain and nerve diseases are actively involved in social media platforms. Doctors who appeal to social media users with their posts on social media become phenomenon doctors as a result of healthy and successful communication processes with their target audience. Phenomenon doctors who share content that users will find original create sincerity and emotional bonds. This is a situation that may attract the attention of medical tourists. According to the findings obtained in the related research, the characteristics of the medical service offered are also frequently encountered in the posts of doctors. The duration of the medical service, the use of new technology in the relevant service, the process, and the results are conveyed in the posts of phenomenon doctors.”
The fact that phenomenal doctors include medical tourists in their posts attracts attention
Lect. Özcan stated that another remarkable finding in the research is the social media content that medical tourists are shared. “We see cases where phenomenon doctors frequently use emojis, have a presentable appearance, present sections from their personal lives, use Turkish and English language together or use English directly. In addition, details such as the fact that a phenomenon doctor among the phenomenon doctors examined in the research directly includes the message of a medical tourist, and shares a photo of a medical tourist by stating where she or he came from, are also interesting.”
