The article considers medical tourism in Russia as a social phenomenon. The design (development of a program, hypotheses, methodology) of sociological research is proposed, which involves understanding the existing and obtaining missing information about the investigated social phenomenon. In solving these problems, it is important to understand that the genesis and development of medical tourism are infl uenced by quite numerous social factors (often acting in directly opposite directions) that actualize social reality in the time period of one to two years ago.