Medical Tourism in the Interwar Levant: Patient Mobility across Class and Space

The phenomenon of medical tourism, involving individuals traveling to another country or city for medical treatment is common nowadays, especially in the context of plastic surgery. Historically, it is often thought of in relation to spa tourism or TB sanatoria in 18th and 19th century Europe. This practice, however, expands beyond cosmetics or class and reflects a proactive quest for optimal healthcare services, thereby underscoring patients' agency and mobility, even in colonial settings. This research therefore proposes to delve into medical tourism within the interwar Levant, as the region was being engulfed into the Mandate system of the League of Nations. Rather than focusing on hospitals as care facilities, this paper reframes hospitals as places of attraction driving the circulation of patients in search of treatments.

Examining patient mobility amidst (or despite) the French and British mandates in the Levant reveals the importance of considering this region as a whole, despite the recent establishment of borders. It also highlights the agency of local populations and patients in their ability to select where to receive their care. This investigation predominantly focuses on the mobility patterns of tuberculosis patients, a stigmatized disease whose incidence surged between the wars in the Levant. Despite its prevalence, the region lacked adequate infrastructure to combat the disease, except for Lebanon, which boasted several operational sanatoria during this era, the like of Bhannès and Hamlin, positioning it as a focal point for medical tourism. By looking at Sanatoria registries and archival materials on tuberculosis management in the region (Mandate government letters and memos, Minutes of the American University in Beirut’s Faculty of Medicine, health reports, etc.), this research unveils the influx of patients from diverse places and statuses across the region, thereby sketching a comprehensive portrait of medical tourism in the interwar Levant.