Travel Blog #16: More on Medical Tourism
I recently found a website that discusses Medical Tourism. I discussed some medical tourism issues in Travel Blog #12, so I thought that I would let others know of the site.
http://www.medicaltourism.com/ includes a discussion page on topics such as the medical tourism industry, dental and ophthalmologic. Another page includes over 100 links to other websites that facilitate medical procedures at destinations such as India, South East Asia and Europe.
March 18th, 2006 at 3:50 pm
Medical tourism is essentially travelling to a foreign location for treatment of ailments. Most medical tourists emerge from developed countries like USA, Canada and UK to name a few. Medical tourism has been evolving rapidly and is proving to be a big boon for countries like India, Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, etc to earn foreign exchange.
Most medical tourists can get serious ailments like cardiac bypass surgery, bone marrow transplants to less life threatening procedures like dental surgery, cosmetic surgery done for sometimes 1/10th the price they would pay back home.
Another good resource for medical tourists is: http://www.medicaltoursim.ca
March 22nd, 2006 at 7:55 am
Salil,
Thanks for the website on medical tourism.
I have found another very useful source of information, although the publication costs 75 Euro’s.
The Association of Tourism and Leisure Information (ATLAS) defines Medical Tourism as:
“Travel from a normal place of residence to a destination at which medical or surgical treatment is provided or performed, and which involves more than one night away from the country of residence.
Within this broad field, there are a growing number of specialised sectors of medical tourism, including surgical tourism, wellness and spa tourism, dental tourism and reproductive tourism, all of which are analysed in the report.
Our analysis indicates that the global medical tourism market comprised over 19 million trips in 2005, with a total value of $20 billion (€16.4 billion). Many countries are experiencing double-digit growth in medical tourism, which is forecast to grow to 40 million trips, or 4% of global tourism volume by 2010 ” (http://www.atlas-euro.org).
April 21st, 2006 at 1:29 pm
While there are some world class physicians in India, the lack of appropriate sanitation and infrastructure is likely to doom India’s medical tourism aspirations for the present. India will continue to attract, as she does now, patients from sub-Saharan Africa, neighboring countries and persons of Indian ancestry. People from more developed countries are likely to shun India’s offering as more people become aware of the serious sanitation issues. Some hospitals in India may offer a safe environment for the patient. But one the patient is discharged into the community for additional treatment and follow up the risk of infection increases dramatically. While some physicians in India believe a patient can be sheltered from contact with the outside community, I suspect this is unlikely. Currently there are reports of medical tourists from developed countries returning immediately to their country of origin after a brief exit from the Delhi airport. This trend will likely grow as more people from developed countries are lured to India by promises of low cost healthcare. As the number of potential medical tourists who witness India’s lack of adequate sanitation grows so will mainstream news reports on the subject.
India is not without competition. Several Southeast Asian countries offer good value for the medical tourist. Singapore has one of the best transplant programs in the world. It is reported in the Indian press that wealthy Indians travel to Singapore for liver transplants rather. That alone should be telling.
Thailand, the current leader in Asian medical tourism currently attracts six times as many patients as India. Many of these patients are from developed countries. Thailand’s medical system was built on the US model. In the 1920s the King’s father made it his life’s work to improve medical care in Thailand. He entered Harvard University and earned an MD degree with honors. He was also inducted into the medical honor society in the US. During his stay at Harvard he convinced the Rockefeller Foundation to fund a US medical education for a group of Thai men and women. These men and women returned to Thailand and were the seed of modern Thai medical system. Today a significant number of Thai physicians are at least partially educated abroad. Many hold US professional certification. You seldom see Thai physicians practicing abroad because most honor their King and return home to practice. Despite claims by the CII, Thailand and Singapore’s physicians have a long track record of successfully performing complex medical procedures. Thailand was almost 10 years ahead of India in performing transplant surgery. Bumrungrad hospital in Bangkok for instance sees a significant number of patients from the US and Canada seeking total disc replacement spinal surgery, hardly a “simple” procedure. Later this year, the Medical Sciences Department, Mahidol University and the Cardiac Institute of Thailand will be conducting additional clinical trials on a cutting edge stem cell procedure that has shown promise in restoring cardiac function in damaged hearts again, hardly a simple procedure.
In summation, India has potential as a medical tourism destination however, if the sanitation and other infrastructure problems are not addressed and soon, that potential will not likely be realized. Other countries in the region may cost more but will likely remain the primary destinations. Patients from developed countries expect a clean safe environment both in the hospital and out. At present, India cannot deliver on those expectations.
Neal R. Yerkes, RN
By Neal R. Yerkes, RN
April 28th, 2006 at 3:49 pm
Always good to find others interested in the same topic! Impressed by Neal’s article comparing India and Thailand - wish you could post the same comment on my site (address below).
I also like the medicaltourism.com site - I just wish it were a bit more going on in the forum. Ended up creating my own website and a blog about the topic. Has been a great learning experience so far, but I still have a long way to go.
If you want to have a look, please drop by at
http://www.medithai.net/news/
for my medical tourism blog or at
http://www.medithai.net
if you are more into some background info on medical services in Thailand.