Speaking to Press TV, on the final day of the Second International Conference on Health Tourism in Iran’s city of Mashhad, the experts also talked about the challenges faced by medical tourism.

VO: At the end of the two-day event, the participants signed cooperation MoUs to help set up health tourism branches in the OIC member states. These centers will help coordinate the trends of medical tourism development and organize annual meetings in collaboration with the Secretariat of Islamic Health Tourism Association in Iran.

http://presstv.com/detail/216809.html

Dental Implants Quotes Cancun Quitana Roo

Dentista Vacation Medical Tourism

Medical Tourism Resource Online
http://mmedsolution.com/

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.

source: imtj.com

Australia does not yet offer medical tourism in any organised way as the number of international inbound visitors that meet the definition of a medical tourist is, according to the report, a consistent 7,000 a year from 2006 to 2009. While official figures suggest that there are over a million medical tourists in Australia each year, this is a definition that comes out of the unusual state based and insurance based healthcare systems in the country; so almost all of these are simply Australians travelling away from their home town/city, frequently a relatively short distance by Australian standards, but not by European standards, for medical treatment.

There are a much larger number of health and wellness travellers, but again the vast majority of these are from within the country. There are very few hospitals or clinics offering facilities to medical tourists from overseas. This research suggests that Australia would benefit from developing niche medical tourism offerings based on Australian medical strengths/expertise, as has occurred with the Cairns Fertility Clinic and its IVF services. Possible areas for development of Australian medical tourism services include cardiology, urology, orthopaedic surgery and oncology. The report recommends that Australia seek a competitive advantage internationally by focusing on the provision of quality services at a lower price point than the United States, and based on niche medical offerings in which Australia has an international reputation and expertise.

There is no state or national government policy on or support of medical tourism and no particular recognition of this as an area of distinctive opportunity. The prospect of medical tourism is seen by all these governments as fraught with difficulties for governments concerned with voters’ perceptions of medical resources being handed over to private sector entrepreneurs. The research suggests that the best way forward would be for the national government to establish and fund a body that develops a nationally coordinated medical tourism policy and actively promotes Australia as an international medical tourism destination through trade shows and other forums. To encourage the development of medical tourism, it is recommended that submissions are developed and presented to government to illustrate the potential for medical tourism to contribute to the supply of medical services and facilities in Australia and to contribute export income to the Australian economy.

One problem identified is that the visa application process for medical tourists is so complex that most medical tourists enter Australia on a tourist visa rather than go through the process of applying for a medical visa due to the associated delay. It recommends that the application process for medical visas (long-stay and short- stay) be reviewed and streamlined. The report identified a problem on price as Australia does not have a comparable selling point on price to India, but Australian medical services are still considerably cheaper than in the United States and several treatments are also less costly than in South Korea.

source: imtj.co

In statements after a meeting with the CTO leadership, the Minister of Health Christos Patsalides said that “the plan concerning grants for the accreditation of private hospitals has already been completed and is set to be announced”.

Grants could reach up to 70 per cent of the cost, the Minister explained, adding that the plan will address the Arab and European markets. He added that interest is also expressed by Russian investors. The Minister said that in times of economic crisis, we must find ways to expand our services but also to promote new products which will highlight Cyprus’ strategic geographical location in providing services.”

Patsalides talked about the need to attract health tourism through incentives and better promotion of local services. He said that the Ministry of Health is working with the CTO, which chairs the competent committee set up to draft a comprehensive strategy in cooperation with the Cyprus Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) and other interested organisations.

source: famagusta-gazette.com

The centre-left government of Prime Minister Naoto Kan, who took office last week, has pledged to end two decades of stagnation in Asia’s biggest economy and achieve stable real economic growth above 2.0 percent a year.

In the short term, the government aims to beat deflation by late fiscal 2011 and boost weak demand while bringing unemployment down from about five percent now to below four percent soon and then down to three percent.

Japan is also eyeing lowering the corporate tax rate, from an effective 40 percent now to the average level of major industrialised nations, which is around 25 percent, possibly from fiscal 2011, the strategy paper says.

Kan, a former left-wing activist who most recently served as finance minister, has promised a “third way” approach for the economy, which is expected to slip behind China soon to global number three spot.

The premier has identified the “first way” as the heavy infrastructure spending of the 1980s and 90s, much of it pork-barrel projects that drove up public debt and left many “white elephant” projects of dubious economic value.

Kan has also rejected as the “second way” the “excessive market fundamentalism” of former premier Junichiro Koizumi which aimed to slim down government but also weakened social safety and widened income disparities.

In a speech last week, Kan outlined his “third way” policies — an ambitious approach that would strengthen domestic demand and jobs while also boosting the social security system and reducing the public fiscal deficit.

Kan has pledged to reduce the world’s biggest public debt mountain, which is nearing 200 percent of GDP, and has warned of the risk of a Greece-style meltdown for Japan if the problem is left unaddressed.

He has said the DPJ would call for a full debate on tax reform and did not rule out the possibility of doubling the five percent sales tax.

His party, in an election manifesto released Thursday, pledged to slice the country’s public deficit in half or less by the year to March 2016, with a longer term ambition of eliminating it by fiscal 2020.

Japan — with an ageing and shrinking population — already collects less than half the taxes it needs to cover its spending.

In order to revitalise the economy, the government wants to focus on core areas, including “green innovation”, which it estimates will create 1.5 million jobs, and health care, which would generate 2.8 million jobs.

More growth would come through strengthening ties with booming Asia, which is already the key market for Japanese exports, and selling technology from renewable energy innovations to Shinkansen bullet trains abroad.

Growing tourism from less than 10 million annual visitors now to 25 million by 2020 — in part by easing visa regulations for Chinese and by increasing ‘medical tourism — is expected to boost Japan and many of its regions, creating more than half a million jobs, according to the strategy.

Kan, riding high in opinion polls ahead of July 11 upper house elections, seems to have public support for his approach, said Thomas Berger, associate professor of International Relations at Boston University.

“Faced with a budget deficit of epic proportions, the new prime minister has made putting Japan’s fiscal house in order his number one priority,” he said.

“Encouragingly, public opinion data suggests that the Japanese public is prepared to contemplate tax increases and budget cuts if it can reduce the risk of a Greek-style economic meltdown.”

“Public opinion data also suggests the Japanese public believes Japan has the latent economic and technological resources to pull off a comeback.”

source: Agence France – Presse

Many Indian hospitals have tied up with US corporates to treat their employees at affordable rates.

They are also hopeful that patients seeking elective surgeries will continue to choose India as a preferred destination.

Southeast Asian nations such as Singapore and Thailand have been favourite destinations for foreign patients seeking treatment at affordable rates.

However, Indian hospitals are fast catching up.

They are targeting American companies, which will possibly bring a fresh stream of patients seeking low-cost quality services.

India’s two top hospital chains, Fortis and Apollo, have tied up with three US companies to treat patients.

Fortis said it has already treated 20 patients after entering into the partnership, while Apollo Hospital said its deals have triggered a near 100 per cent growth in the flow of US patients.

“If you look around, look at multinational companies (MNCs) or global companies, almost every industry has a global company,” said Shivinder Mohan Singh, managing director of Fortis Healthcare.

“Healthcare is probably the only sector that does not have a MNC. It has very large companies but restricted within one country. So I think here is the opportunity to create a global hearlthcare MNC.”

Fortis’ recent acquisition of Singapore based Parkway Holdings will further consolidate its expansion plans.

The 24-per-cent stake in Parkway will make it the biggest hospital network in Asia.

It has now boasts a Pan-Asian presence, with a network of 62 hospitals and over 10,000 beds.

Fortis hopes the deal will allow it to tap the strong medical tourism business in Southeast Asia.

“There was a global survey that was done recently by an independent company in terms of rating hospitals in health tourism,” said Malvinder Mohan Singh, group chairman of Fortis Healthcare.

“And the top two hospitals are Wockhardt Hospital in Bangalore that is a part of Fortis network and the second is the Gleneagle in Singapore, which is also a part of Parkway network. So within Fortis-Parkway network we have the top two ranked global healthcare facilities.”

The Union Tourism Ministry estimates India’s medical tourism market will be worth US$2 billion a year by 2012.

And to complement the efforts of hospitals, the government has also introduced a new category of medical visas for foreigners.

The visa issued to a patient and companion for a year, can be extended up to three years.

Indian hospitals see a constant flow of foreign patients mainly from the US.

Even though the US Healthcare Bill provides insurance cover for many ailments, elective procedures such as dental correction, facelift and beauty enhancement treatments are not on its priority.

Destinations such as India will continue to be on top as its healthcare costs are only a tenth of the US rates.

source: channelnewsasia.com

The process of healthcare tourism is jointly facilitated by the corporate sectors involved in medical and healthcare as well as the tourism industry – both private and public. Hospitals of Delhi and Chennai provide best treatment for the Laser dentistry in India.

Laser dentistry can be a precise and effective way to perform many dental procedures. The potential for Laser dentistry is to improve dental procedures rests in the dentist’s ability to control power output and the duration of exposure on the tissue (whether gum or tooth structure), allowing for treatment of a highly specific area of focus without damaging surrounding tissues.

The process is to emit light that delivers quick pulses of heat energy to the treatment area. Various wavelengths are used depending on the type of tissue being treated. Surgical lasers are more accurate than traditional dental treatments and allow the dentist to conserve as much bone and tooth as possible.

Laser dentistry in India means real value for money because patients can get benefit from the warm climate for recuperation and can relax in luxury accommodation. Medical tourism can be broadly defined as the provision of ‘cost effective’ private medical care in collaboration with the tourism industry for patients needing surgical and other forms of specialized treatment.

The process of healthcare tourism is jointly facilitated by the corporate sector involved in medical and healthcare as well as the tourism industry – both private and public. India is promoting the “high-tech healing” of its private healthcare sector as a tourist attraction.

source: pr-inside.com

PricewaterhouseCoopers’ report, HealthCast: The Customisation of diagnosis, care and cure, is the culmination of a year-long study of 25 health systems around the world. The research identified an emerging phenomenon among both developed and emerging market countries: In response to the global recession and pressure to reduce rising national health costs associated with chronic diseases, government and health leaders recognize that individuals must play a bigger role in managing their health and overall health spending.

Among nearly 600 global government and health industry leaders surveyed by PricewaterhouseCoopers:

* 86 percent believe the prevailing attitude in their country is that government will continue to be responsible for basic healthcare.

* The consensus, however, was that, ultimately, individuals have the greatest influence over their own health and outcomes.

* 97 percent agreed that patients should have some responsibility for managing their chronic conditions such as obesity, asthma, diabetes and heart disease, with 57 percent saying they should have a great deal of responsibility.

* Patients’ lack of willpower was cited as the biggest barrier to individuals actively managing their health, but nearly three-quarters (74 percent) believe that unhealthy behaviour will become increasingly unacceptable in their country.

It is widely accepted that chronic diseases are associated with behavioural, socio-economic and genetic factors that are not within the control of today’s medical delivery system.

PricewaterhouseCoopers’ research found social, political, economic and regulatory barriers that prevent, or discourage, individuals from becoming more actively engaged in managing their own health. To engage consumers and compete for them in the global healthcare marketplace, health systems are trying to understand consumers’ needs and individual preferences and tailor care to fit them, not unlike other industries that have been transformed by consumerism.

PricewaterhouseCoopers’ survey of global health leaders found:

* Seventy-six percent agreed that lack of knowledge and access to health information keeps individuals from managing their health. Seventy-four percent believe that patients do not understand the health information and choices available to them. Growth of the Internet, social media, mobile communication and merging of information technology with healthcare are expected to give consumers unprecedented new access and knowledge.

* To create incentives for health providers to encourage behavioural changes in their patients, 84 percent of health leaders agreed that compensation to hospitals, physicians and other providers should be based on quality health outcomes.

* Nearly three-fourths of health leaders expect that health funding and financing in their countries will be redistributed from treating sickness in acute care settings to keeping people well and outside of hospitals, nursing homes and doctors’ offices.

* Forty-five percent of health leaders expect personalised medicine to be a factor. New diagnostics and pharmacogenomics are making it possible to customise diagnosis and treatment to fit individual differences.

* Nearly one-half of global health leaders expect medical tourism to increase by 2015, as health systems compete for consumers by offering personalised care, access to medical innovation and the greatest value for consumers.

While many health systems say they deliver patient-centred care, PricewaterhouseCoopers’ research found only pockets in the world where this is true, and that the greatest progress is being made where governments are accelerating innovation and seeking public-private partnerships around outcomes-based care.

David M. Levy, MD, Global Healthcare Sector Leader, PricewaterhouseCoopers, commented:

“The healthcare industry is a vast, highly regulated and change-resistant infrastructure that has taken decades to build. We found that health organizations are still focused on their own concerns, not necessarily what is best for the patient. There is growing recognition that, if the patient is left out of the equation, it is impossible to adequately manage care, consumption and spending. The overarching challenge for incumbent health systems will be to shift their internal focus from a siloed bureaucratic healthcare infrastructure to one that puts the patient at the centre of care and engages them to be active stakeholders in their health and the health system.”

PricewaterhouseCoopers reports that current health systems are difficult for consumers to understand or influence. These systems typically are based on an acute care model focused on the treatment of illness after a patient becomes sick or injured, with care usually taking place in a hospital or physician’s office. This model is heavily dependent on hospital infrastructure and the availability of an appropriate medical workforce. Furthermore, patient care is often disjointed by a series of hand-offs between clinicians and organizations, access is limited and payment and regulatory silos have created misaligned incentives that discourage information sharing and care coordination. These factors lead to inefficiencies, waste in health spending, poor outcomes, long wait times and patient dissatisfaction.

The implementation of electronic medical records and health information technology is seen by most health systems as an important way to promote collaboration, empower patients and customise care. Forty-two percent of global health leaders said that electronic medical records (EMR) will be operational in their countries within five years, and 71 percent said making EMRs available to patients would make their health system more efficient via enhanced self-management.

Many of the world’s largest economies are tackling major regulatory and payment reforms that will alter how behavioural, genetic and medical delivery components drive personal health spending. According to PricewaterhouseCoopers, health leaders can work together to achieve solutions for customised diagnosis, care and cure by:

* Developing incentives that encourage partnership
* Working on regulatory reforms that reward competition and innovation
* Planning for redistribution of funding from sickness to wellness
* Providing individuals with better information to understand their options and share in decision-making with their providers
* Exploring workforce models, such as telemedicine and expanded roles for nurses, which would allow greater flexibility and effectiveness
* Preparing for complexity of agile, interoperable IT framework for real-time, customer-driven market.

Dr. Levy continued:

“Transforming the internal focus of the health system will mean re-engineering virtually all components of the health infrastructure – communication systems, doctor-patient roles and responsibilities, and perhaps even the most challenging aspect of care, hard-wired habits and traditions.”

A toolkit for changing the consumer experience

In its report, PricewaterhouseCoopers outlines five areas where health systems can customise care and better engage individuals in managing their health.

1. Coordinated care teams: Consumers want coordinated care. Integrated care networks that share information, care and accountability for patient outcomes will become the new mandate.

2. Fluent Navigators: Individuals lack the knowledge and skills they need to navigate the health system and understand their choices. In a patient-centred health system, there will be a growing need for consumer advocates beyond friends and family. PricewaterhouseCoopers sees the role of healthcare-fluent navigators being played by pharmacists, community groups and possibly the emergence of a new professional field much as financial planners emerged with the rise of consumer-directed investing.

3. Patient-experience benchmarks: In a patient-centred health system, more attention will be paid to understanding and meeting consumer expectations. Many health systems already are tracking and publicly reporting on patient-centric metrics of care, such as cleanliness, wait times and physician satisfaction, allowing patients to make more informed decisions.

4. Care-anywhere networks: The definition of access is being redefined by wireless mobile devices, remote monitoring and new care delivery models that move care from hospitals, nursing homes and physicians’ offices and into patients’ homes, which increasingly are wired with networked devices.

5. Medical Proving Grounds: Through collaboration and investment, some regions are positioning themselves to be medical proving grounds, or centres of excellence, in the new era of personalised medicine and care as a way to attract patients, researchers and providers looking for the shortest path to access and innovation. Governments wanting to capitalize on this may need to re-invigorate drug development with the same vigour as other innovations, such as energy exploration and the build-out of renewable energy generation.

HealthCast: The customisation of diagnosis, care and cure builds on three previously published reports by PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Health Research Institute that accurately forecasted as early as 1999 the initial influence of consumerism, genomics and the Internet on healthcare.

As part of its research, PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Health Research Institute commissioned a survey of 590 leaders of health plans, providers, government, employers, physician groups and pharmaceutical/life science firms in 20 countries and conducted more than 200 in-depth interviews in 25 countries with thought leaders and executives representing government, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies, clinicians, academics and the business community. In addition, PricewaterhouseCoopers commissioned a survey of 3,500 consumers in seven countries to identify preferences and attitudes about the

source: Michael Roberts, balka

Medical tourism is a us$60 billion dollar industry worldwide and expected to almost double that to us$100 billion by the year 2025.

And the principal market for Costa Rican medical tourism is the United States and Canada.

Lets take a look at some of the numbers. In the US, some 11.000 people turn 50 years of age daily; almost 50 million Americans do not have a doctor, double that do not have dental coverage and in 2007, 750.000 Americans traveled abroad to obtain medical attention. The expectations are that this year that number will grow to 6 million.

Countries already heading the list of destination for medical tourism are Mexico, Panama, Brazil, India, Thailand and South Africa.

Costa Rica wants to make sure it doesn’t get left behind in this important sector and as such will be holding this month the first Latin American congress on medicine and welfare.

Promoting Costa Rica’s medical tourism is Promoción Internacional de la Medicina de Costa Rica (PROMED), private non-profit organization that coordinates the efforts being undertaken to ensure the quality of services provided by the healthcare industry in Costa Rica and and to promote them internationally, in order to consolidate the country as a centre of international medicine and leading destination for health tourism.

PROMED groups health care providers, health professionals, providers of tourist services, the academic sector and other marketers of goods and services related to medical tourism.

Some of the affiliates of PROMED include, Hospital Clínica Bíblica, Hospital CIMA San José, Universidad de Ciencias Medicas UCIMED, Hospital Hotel La Católica, the Costa Rica Association of Medical and Dental Recovery Inns and Hotels, Hotel Ramada Herradura, Hilton Papagayo, DoubleTree Cariari and HOMEWATCH CAREGIVERS Latin America.

The World Health Report 2000 – Costa Rica ranks 36th on the world’ s health systems Health systems: Improving performance; Highest ranking in Political Stability and Absence of Violence in Latin America World Bank, 2007; and, Educational Best system in Latin America, 36th worldwide World Economic Forum Global The Competitiveness Report 2007-2008.

In addition, San José ranks 4th among the cities with the best quality of life of Latin America. San José is also the first among Latin American countries in the Worldwide Business Trip Index The Economist Intelligence Unit 2006 Costa Rica Health System National. The health system includes the Ministry of Health, which has taken leadership for the sector; the Costa Rican Social Security System (CCSS), which delivers care in the event of disease and maternity.

source: www.insidecostarica.com

The conference is a joint initiative between the Medical Tourism Association (MTA) and Korean Health Industry Development Institute (KHIDI). This Conference will feature up to 800 attendees from over 25 countries bringing together the stakeholders for intense networking events and educational opportunities. The conference delegates would include worldwide selection of Healthcare Providers, International Insurance Providers, Employers, Top Medical Tourism Facilitators, Travel Agents and Referring Physicians.

The Korea Health Industry Development Institute (KHIDI) is funded by the Korean government and was established to support the Korean health industry. KHIDI develops the national strategies and policies on global healthcare industry as well as executes a series of projects to promote Korean healthcare to the world such as media promotion on Korean healthcare and medical travel insurance program development. KHIDI runs three overseas offices in New York, Beijing, and Singapore for its regional marketing.

The Medical Tourism Association is the first international non-profit association made up of the top international hospitals, healthcare providers, medical tourism facilitators, insurance companies, and other affiliated companies and members with the common goal of promoting the highest level of quality of healthcare to patients in a global environment. The Medical Tourism Association has three tenets: Transparency, Communication and Education. Medical Tourism is often referred to as medical travel and health tourism.

source: biomedme.com