Dec. 10th, 2021, 13 hrs. in MRU's I-414 aud., doctoral student Šarūnas Banevičius (Leadership and Strategic Management Institute) will defend his PhD dissertation, "Regional Partnership in Health Tourism Management System“.

Research Supervisor:
Prof. Dr. Alvydas Baležentis (Mykolas Romeris University, Social sciences, Management, S 003).

Research Consultant:
Prof. habil. Dr. Anna Lis (Gdansk Technology University, Social sciences, Management, S 003).

Defense Council:
Chairman– Prof. Dr. Vainius Smalskys (Mykolas Romeris University, Social sciences, Management, S 003).
Members:
Prof. habil. Dr. Diana Dryglas (AGH University of Science and Technology, Poland, Social sciences, Management, S 003);
Prof. Dr. Tadas Sudnickas (Mykolas Romeris University, Social sciences, Management, S 003);
Prof. Dr. Diana Šaparnienė (Vilnius University Šiauliai Academy, Social sciences, Management, S 003);
Prof. Dr. Jan Žukovskis (Vytautas Magnus University, Social sciences, Management S 003).

The dissertation examines the regional partnership in the health tourism management system as a complex process, the core and central axis of which is the phenomenon of organizational partnership. The system’s integrated management and partnership mechanism brings together health tourism organizations, integrating resources, common goals and objectives that transform into results during the creative management process. This dissertation aims to solve the following scientific problems: what are the main theoretical foundations of regional partnership management and - how to improve regional partnership in the health tourism management system. Based on theoretical and empirical research in Lithuania, Poland, Latvia, Estonia, Portugal, Croatia, Turkey, health tourism management systems have been identified: situation (health tourism life cycle; SWOT and GGSS matrices, etc.); management features (conscious and purposeful interaction between key actors, organizational networking, etc.); problems (lack of a clear and unified health tourism platform, insufficiently adapted public health care sector for foreign patients, underdeveloped organizational partnership opportunities, etc.); factors promoting and hindering the development of health tourism and ensuring the effectiveness of organizational partnerships.

The aim of the research is to substantiate the regional partnership in the health tourism management system by analyzing the theoretical foundations of regional tourism health tourism management and conducting empirical research. The dissertation presents the principal structure of Lithuania's health tourism management, assessing the significance of institutions at three levels of management: policy making and decision making; policy implementation and monitoring; implementation. It was established that in order to improve the regional partnership in the health tourism management system, it is expedient to establish a regional health tourism institution at the level of policy implementation and monitoring, which would perform the following essential functions: interaction with facilitators, intermediaries, suppliers, medical centers; coordination of the work of all participants in the system; provision of information.