Germany to promote medical and health tourism in 2011. For 2011, the German National Tourist Board’s tourism campaign will focus on health and medical tourism. This includes health and fitness, spas, health resorts, wellness and beauty hotels, hospitals and clinics.
This 2011 campaign will showcase Germany’s modern and cutting-edge facilities, luxury hotels, spas and spa-towns. This is intended to appeal to travellers who value active and affordable holidays linked with culture and indulgence. The campaign will highlight the top German medical clinics for international patients as well as the tourist attractions of the nearby towns and cities.
Currently about 400,000 tourists visit Germany annually for health related holidays, and this number is growing. This is in addition to the estimated 70,000 medical tourists using German clinics and hospitals that are renowned for their excellent quality and reasonable prices.
Germany’s healthy climate, healing waters, natural therapies and countless hotels, spas and health resorts offer programmes to refresh the mind and reinvigorate the body. The offerings include health and beauty care involving fun and physical and mental relaxation using a wide variety of therapies, massages and treatment methods.
Around 300 mineral and mud spas, hydrotherapy resorts, climatic health resorts and seaside resorts in Germany offer a wide choice of preventive and therapeutic well-being treatments. Germany is a land of spas and thermal baths promoting health, beauty and well-being.
Taipei. Taiwan should push to develop medical tourism says scholar. Taiwan’s government should push to develop the medical tourism industry, Cyrus C.Y. Chu of Taiwan’s top research institute Academia Sinica said in a keynote speech at the 29th Convocation of Academicians Monday.
“According to a well-known survey from the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) in 2000, Taiwan’s health standard is second in the world,” he said.
Taiwan ranks only behind Sweden, proving that the country has a strong foundation upon which to expand its health market, he said.
The revenue from foreign patients, however, accounts for not more than 1 percent of total revenue at most hospitals in Taiwan, Chu said, adding that medical tourism output in 2009 reached only NT$636 million (US$19.75 million).
In contrast, Singapore accepted over 420,000 foreign patients in 2007, with revenue reaching almost US$1.2 billion, Chu said.
“Thailand also accepted over 2 million foreign patients in 2009, which brought them revenue of over US$12 billion,” he said.
Chu said that progress in the area is slow in Taiwan, mainly because hospital management does not treat medical tourism as an industry, but as a service.
“But the concept should be changed or we will lose good doctors and hospitals. The government could divide the existing medical system into two parts in order to manage the local insurance medical service and the foreign medical industry,” Chu said.
Other improvements, such as processing visas more efficiently for foreign patients, could also help the development of the industry, he said.
“Developing medical tourism could attract foreign patients to Taiwan to accept treatment. Otherwise good doctors and hospitals will move to China, ” Chu said. “Obviously, developing medical tourism is the better choice for Taiwan now.”
How Colombia can attract medical tourists. Despite boasting high quality and low costs, Colombia could still do more to position itself as a top destination for medical tourists, according to the U.S. Medical Tourism Association (MTA).
MTA president Renee Marie Stephano argued that the most important factor influencing the decision of a potential medical tourist is the cost of the procedure. While Colombia is known to offer much cheaper services, it lacks the positioning to make itself well-known as a destination for those seeking treatment abroad, she claimed.
Despite Colombia’s high-quality medical care, the country’s biggest challenge is getting its hospitals and clinics accredited abroad, Stephano argued.
In Colombia, only two health centers have received international certification for their standards; La Fundacion Cardiovascular (The Cardiovascular Fondation) in Santander, and La Fundacion Santa Fe (The Santa Fe Foundation) in Bogota.
As a result, the Andean nation’s key advantages, low cost and high quality, are not being fully packaged and branded abroad.
Cheap surgeries in Colombia, such as $11,000 knee replacements, compared to $40,000 in Europe, and $24,000 cardiac bypass procedures, compared to $130,000 abroad, have not been enough to bring in the number of foreigners the government is seeking, Stephano explained.
Other important variables that are needed to effectively brand the country, Stephano continued, include quality of service, lodging, meals, transportation, tours, and insurance coverage.
Source: Columbia Reports
Medical Tourism Magazine Sets the Trend That Dominates Growth of the Industry. Many publications have come and gone as the Medical Tourism Association approaches the 3-year anniversary of Medical Tourism Magazine, the only printed and online publication in the industry.
Speaking on behalf of contributors and members at large, President of the Medical Tourism Association and Editor-in-Chief Renee-Marie Stephano reflects on where we have been, where we are and where we are headed.
“Over the years, we have covered far-reaching topics ranging from marketing medical tourism programs, innovative medical advancements, global health insurance to sustainability programs. In this upcoming issue, we are addressing an extremely important topic ~ that of global events affecting medical travel, like healthcare reform,” said Renee-Marie Stephano.
In fact, on this anniversary date, the Medical Tourism Association is also pleased to announce the official release of the Medical Tourism Magazine’s Issue 16 featuring articles such as “Medical Tourism ~ A Solution for Healthcare” and “Healthcare Reform and Emerging Benefit Program Opportunities.”
Hong Kong Medical Tourism. HK Medical Travel & Health Care
All 12 of Hong Kong’s private hospitals have been surveyed and accredited by the UK’s Trent Accreditation Scheme since early 2001. This has been a major factor in the ascent of standards in Hong Kong’s private hospitals
The Trent scheme works closely with the hospitals it assesses to generate standards appropriate to the locality (with respect to culture, geography, public health, primary care interfaces etc.), and always uses combinations of UK-sourced and Hong Kong-sourced surveyors
Some of Hong Kong’s private hospitals have now gone on to obtain dual international accreditation, with both Trent and JCI (and have therefore attained a standard surpassing some of the best hospitals in Thailand and Singapore)
Others are looking towards dual international accreditation with Trent and the Australian group. Hong Kong public hospitals have yet to commit to external accreditation
China Medical Tourism. China Medical Travel Destination
China is fast emerging as a desirable destination for individuals seeking medical care in a wide range of medical specialties, including cardiology, neurology, orthopedics and others
A number of private and government hospitals in major cities have established international departments. Many leading hospitals provide treatments integrating Traditional Chinese Medicine with Western medical technology and techniques
China is home to leading stem cell research and treatment hospitals that offer Westerners who want to take advantage of stem cell treatments that are still considered experimental or have yet to be approved in their home country
Pakistan Medical Tourism. Karachi Medical Travel & Healthcare
Pakistan could not grow as a destination of medical tourism due to political issues of the region, otherwise it had been a haven for getting Kidneys as in previous times this was not regulated and kidneys could be had for a pretty thousand dollars and locally implanted, patients from Arab world benefited from this in the past
Pakistan has good facilities for cardiac procedures like coronary artery stenting in most cities and a three stent insertion procedure costs around 10000 dollars at best ,often lower. Its famous hospitals include Agha Khan hospital in Karachi and Shifa international Hospital in Islamabad. Pakistan also has good cheap general surgery facilities all over for say Cholecystectomy
It is not a favourite destination for other types of transplantations however . It does not have websites for medical tourism but some sites like old-age-medicine.com can direct medical tourists to local facilities without charges
UAE Medical Tourism. United Arab Emirates Medical Travel
Hospitals in Dubai and other emirates have expressed an intent to develop in medical tourism
Some have American-sourced international healthcare accreditation, while others are looking towards the UK, Australia and Canada for accreditation services
Medical Travel & Healthcare Tourism. Medical Tourists & Health-Care is a combination of wellness and healthcare coupled with leisure and relaxation which is aimed at rejuvenating a person mentally, physically and emotionally, drawing away from his daily routine to a relaxed environment in an exotic location
Medical Tourism is the process of traveling abroad to receive superior medical, and cosmetic care by highly skilled surgeons at some of the most modern and state-of-the-art medical facilities in the world.
This means that those who choose medical tourism are able to utilize the services of some of the top surgeons in the world, all while enjoying exotic locales and accommodations.
Health-Care Savings Patients can put the money they are saving on the procedure into turning their journey into a magnificent, world-class retreat. For millions of patients, it is the only way to get the needed or desired medical treatment, without wiping out their entire life-savings
Medical Tourism is also known as Medical Travel, Health Tourism, Health Travel, Medical Value Travel, Healthcare Abroad, Medical Overseas, Overseas Medical, Surgery Overseas, Medical Outsourcing & Offshore Medical
Medical tourism can be described as a healthy holiday. In most cases, medical tourists are not your average vacationers opting for medical or cosmetic treatment, just because it is available, but patients with significant health concerns for whom the cost of their health-care is a primary concern and the vacation aspect a secondary one.
Indeed, someone needing medical or cosmetic treatment would not go abroad if the `affordable healthcare` factor-quality of treatment, cost savings and wait time did not justify it. As long as you are healthy enough to travel, you stand to benefit from medical tourism’s offerings
