~ On The Beach Ft. Lauderdale/Miami ~

The must attend conference for anyone with an interest in medical tourism.

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Mark your calendar for 5th World Medical Tourism & Global Healthcare Congress 2012 On the Beach Fort Lauderdale/Miami, the biggest international medical tourism event for healthcare providers, insurance companies, medical tourism facilitators, government, airlines, hospitality companies and other stakeholders in the medical tourism industry.

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The Fastest Way to Increase Your Knowledge and Implement Best Practices in your Business

You will get access to dozens of hours of educational sessions including keynote presentations, discussion panels, workshops and much more. Learn directly from the expert speakers in the industry presenting the most relevant topics geared to help you identify ways to increase the ROI to your organization.

Explore Our Educational Tracks, featuring topics such as international accreditation process and requirements, country successful medical tourism case studies, best practices for successful medical tourism marketing, comparison of care cost in different countries, insurance options for those in Medical Tourism business among other relevant and current topics.

Who Attends?

Full Integration With The Employer Healthcare & Benefits Congress

1,000+ more attendees from the U.S. & international health insurance industry.
Medical Tourism Congress attendees will have for the first time access to pre-schedule networking meetings with senior U.S. healthcare and insurance leaders attending the Employer Healthcare & Benefits Congress.
Medical Tourism Congress attendees have access to up to 50 sessions focused on the U.S. insurance and employer healthcare market.

REGISTRATION IS OPEN NOW – PAY ONLY $1,200

(Only until February 1st 2012!)

Visit www.medicaltourismcongress.com at any time to get the latest information on the 5th World Medical Tourism & Global Healthcare Congress.

The Medical Tourism Association Team

MMedsolution Medical Tourism Resource On-line

http://mmedsolution.com/

http://mmedsolution.com/

Medical strategies are different from marketing campaigns. Medical Strategies are use to catch the attention of numerous medical tourist that needs complicated medication while marketing campaigns are intended for casual international health and wellness traveler.

The psychological profiles of international patients seeking medical procedures that are complex require marketing plans featuring competent, confidence building messages rather than the “fun in the sun” campaigns designed for medical travelers seeking low acuity treatments. Understanding the different between these two market segments is vital to achieving success in the medical tourism industry.

There are differences in motivational factors among individuals having an orthopedic or cardiac procedure compare to someone having a minor cosmetic on dental medication. Understanding their differences is essential for marketing campaign creations that will catch the attention of numerous health travelers.

More and more countries are now placing vast priority on medical tourism as their identify the importance to the industry. Competition on attracting international patients that needs serious medical treatment is

As more and more countries identify medical tourism as a national priority, competition for international patients who require complex care are a ripe target in that they purchase high cost, high margin medical care as well as staying in country for an extended period of time. These types of international visitors are a substantial value added to the local economy and are going to be the focus of more and better targeted marketing efforts, Marketing tips and other helpful hints will be provided as part of Mr. Stackpole’s presentation to help organizations secure the types of clients they seek.

Established in 1991, Stackpole & Associates provides marketing, market research, and business development solutions for providers, consumers, and customers in healthcare, senior living and human services. For the medical tourism industry, Stackpole & Associates can help businesses identify prospective clients globally with a focus on the US, UK and Canada, and then ensure that the products and services offered to those customers carry the right message in the right way. The company is an active member of the Medical Tourism Association.

Mmedsoolution Medical Tourism Resource

Dimebon Results Medical Trials

www.mmedsolution.com

Within few days of India’s top IT outsourcing company Infosys was called ‘Chop Shop’ by a US senator, a UK infection control research team led by Prof Timothy Walsh, in a study published in Lancet, has dropped another bombshell by naming a new Superbug gene NDM-1 after the name of Indian capital, as ‘New Delhi metallo- lactamase-1’ and blaming Indian Medical Tourism industry especially Cosmetic Surgery centres for its worldwide spread.

“This act of naming Superbug after New Delhi, while none of the samples collected was from Delhi and its presence in UK itself indigenously, appears a ‘Racially’ and commercially motivated act to malign Indian Medical tourism sector.” said Dr K M Kapoor, Senior Consultant, Cosmetic Surgery at Fortis Hospital, Mohali and a Medical Tourism exponent in India.

The charge of the name being racially biased gets all the more credence as Prof Timothy Walsh had reported a similar, but far more dangerous Superbug from an infection outbreak in a hospital in Houston, Texas in 2006. This bug was named VIM 7 rather than being called ‘Houston Superbug’ and was never publicized much. VIM 7 was more dangerous than NDM 1 as it was resistant to all the drugs except Polymyxin B while NDM-I is susceptible to Tigecyclin and Colistin.

I3-IRG researcher Prof Timothy Walsh, PhD, who is still in the process of obtaining his MRCPath (London) and DSc (Australia) had earlier also resorted to publicity gimmicks to draw world’s attention to his pet topic of Metallo-?-Lactamase gene, but failed to do so in his previous attempts. This time by deliberately naming the ‘Superbug’ after New Delhi and implicating India’s burgeoning Cosmetic Surgery tourism industry for its spread, he has raised a big controversy and has managed to get all the attention.

Moreover the credibility of this study suffers from another account as this study has been funded by EU, Wellcome and Wyeth, with Wyeth being the manufacturer of Tigecyclin, one of the two drugs effective against NDM 1. The lead author has reported receiving a travel grant from Wyeth and another author has reported holding or managing shares in AstraZeneca, Merck, Pfizer, Dechra, GlaxoSmithKline, and Eco Animal Health.

By creating a false scare and a doomsday scenario, Prof Timothy Walsh is trying to gain international limelight .The proof of how serious is the threat, of NDM 1 gene, can be had from the excerpts of a press release from Hong Kong’s public Health Dep’t. ‘ According to test results of Public Health Laboratory Services Branch (PHLSB), there was one isolate of E. coli harbouring NDM-1 in a 66-year-old male patient attending a government out-patient clinic in October 2009.The organism was however susceptible to oral antibiotic agents commonly used to treat urinary tract infection, the spokesman said. The patient fully recovered.’ . In this case patient has recovered even after contracting the ‘dreaded’ NDM-1 E Coli infection.

Prof Timothy Walsh had earlier also tried to create scare with this Super bug theory in 2004 through his article , titled ‘Metallo-ß-Lactamases: the Quiet before the Storm?’.The ‘ Quiet before storm’ has lasted well for over 6 years now without a major international outbreak and now Prof Timothy Walsh is again back with his pet topic, trying to serve the same old wine in a new bottle.

UK’s own record in infection control is dismal and high infection rates due to ‘MRSA Superbug’ are driving patients abroad to safer destinations. The EARSS (European Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance System) monitors antimicrobial resistance in Europe. It maintains a comprehensive surveillance and information system that provides comparable and validated data on the prevalence and spread of major invasive bacteria such as MRSA. Its 2002 data shows that in UK hospitals, 44.5 % of Staph infections were of MRSA type, carrying 15 % mortality.

In a report ‘Superbug fear drives NHS patients abroad’ written by Sophie Goodchild, Health Editor , London Evening Standard on 11th March 2008, it has been mentioned ‘About 22,000 people in the capital and 100,000 from UK went overseas for surgery and dental treatment last year – a rise of nearly a quarter on 2006. Fear over infection from superbugs is now a major reason for them opting to go private instead of receiving treatment on the NHS. More than half of surgery patients said they were worried about contracting an infection such as MRSA in a British hospital. This comes a day after the Evening Standard revealed more than nine patients a week are dying from hospital acquired infections. The findings are published by research group Treatment Abroad from its international medical tourist survey.’

Another report had quoted- Keith Pollard, a director of Treatment Abroad, a website on medical tourism, told the media: “We are getting reports that worries about hospital infections such as MRSA are driving people abroad.” Katherine Murphy, of the Patients Association, said: “Hospital infections are the number one concern from callers to our helpline. It comes as no surprise that some people are going abroad because they’re frightened of NHS infection rates in this country. The government is not doing anything to reassure the public, particularly when we know key people are being lost from hospital infection posts and cleaning budgets are being cut”.

High costs and fear of UK Superbug, MRSA, led to the growth of outbound medical tourism from UK with India as one of the top beneficiary. As per a study by treatment abroad , in 2006, for cosmetic surgery procedures like Breast augmentation, tummy tuck, liposuction and facelift , around 14,500 patients traveled outside the UK, spending around £3,500 each, creating an estimated market worth £50 million(cosmetic surgery getting 31% of total market share). This trend has been increasing rapidly since then.

Dr K M Kapoor also shared story of one of his patients from UK, a leading glamour model, Toni Samantha Wildish, who underwent a Breast Implant surgery in Czechoslovakia and contracted a major infection in right breast during surgery and was discharged and sent back after 3 days.

By the time, she reached back home in UK after 5 days, she had started developing features of septicemia. She was taken up for emergency surgery and her right breast implant was removed, leaving her with asymmetric breasts. This left her with no option to look for a better place outside Europe and finally she was operated successfully in India at Fortis Hospital, Mohali by Dr K M Kapoor.

Her previous left side breast implant was also removed and a new set of implants were placed to put her modeling career back on track. “Why this case was not much publicized by ‘Infections from other countries’ experts like Prof Timothy Walsh could be anybody’s guess but one reason could be that Czechoslovakia is part of EU” said Dr Kapoor.

By Implicating Indian Cosmetic Surgery industry for the spread of NDM- 1 gene, without any substantial supporting evidence, this UK based research team is trying to help UK’s floundering Cosmetic Surgery market due to popularity of less expensive and safer Asian destinations like India, Thailand, Malaysia etc, amongst UK population. It is important to note that while samples were collected from India, Pakistan and UK, the bacteria gene was deliberately named after New Delhi.

The reasons are not very far to see as India in recent years has risen to become one of the top medical tourism destinations in Cosmetic Surgery. The same bacteria could have been named ‘Islamabad bug’ but as Pakistan is not yet a significant player in Medical Tourism, so it was spared.

Cosmetic Surgery, one of the safest surgical specialties, is the biggest contributor to the medical tourism revenues in India. The UK team had reasons to discredit India’s dominance in the field of Medical Tourism as western medical industry has started seeing Asian countries led by India as their major competitors and fear that Medical outsourcing industry could go the IT way.

They have found a potent weapon in the form of NDM-1 to win their patients from India by scaring them with this superbug. Dr K M Kapoor, while concluding said, “It is high time Indian government takes a tough stand on this issue to protect its medical tourism industry and asks the UK govt for a clarification & removal of word ‘New Delhi’ from the name of this Superbug.”

source: Punjab Newsline Network

Further, the government initiatives including the introduction of M-visa and investment for setting up affordable hospitals and budget hotels for patients and their relatives in the country will drive the industry growth. Our research indicates that India has emerged as one of the key players at both the regional and international level. Developing healthcare infrastructure, growing private hospitals such as Wockhardt, Apollo, Escort, expert healthcare professionals, low-cost treatments and less waiting time are some of the reasons that attract overseas patients to India.

Besides, we have done an extensive research and prudent analysis of the Indian medical tourism market to understand the factors that will continue to serve as the growth drivers for the industry in the coming years. We have identified that factors such as the forthcoming Commonwealth Games and increasing popularity of Yoga and Ayurvedic treatment have been spurring growth in the market. In addition, various other factors propelling growth in the medical tourism industry have been thoroughly evaluated in the report.

Our comprehensive report “Booming Medical Tourism in India” provides a deep insight into the Indian medical tourism market and evaluates its past, present and future scenario. It discusses the key factors which make India an attractive medical tourism destination. The report thoroughly examines each industry parameter like key market drivers, emerging segments and market restraints. Most importantly, the report gives the future outlook for all the important segments considering the effects of global economic crisis on base drivers, opportunities and challenges faced by the medical tourism industry.

source: emailwire.com

“I believe the timing is good,” said Zullo, 43, a Long Beach entrepreneur who moved to Tijuana eight months ago. “There is no tourism. The market is completely untapped, unorganized; there’s no one filling that niche.”

Driven by this vision, Zullo is organizing Tijuana’s first Gay Pride Festival, to be held June 19 and 20 at the northern end of Avenida Revolucion, center of a small, informal gay district. It will feature music, food, cultural events and presentations by social-service organizations from Baja California and California. And, Zullo hopes, it will bring as many as 10,000 people to the area, not only uniting the city’s fractured gay community but changing attitudes among the population at large.

Zullo, the founder and executive director of Choices Baja, said he has been promoting the event as an economic opportunity, not as “an activist statement.” But when he first approached city tourism authorities, “they basically laughed at me and said, ‘You want us to start promoting gay and lesbian tourism?’?”

His proposal comes as Tijuana’s iconic tourist strip has been struggling for survival after years of declining U.S. tourism. Few sectors of the Baja California tourism industry have suffered as much since 2001, the result of more stringent U.S. border security measures, the economic downturn and drug-related violence. Ceturmex, a local merchants group, estimates that 80 percent of the storefronts are empty.

Baja California’s tourism secretariat reports a 23 percent overall drop in Baja border crossings between 2006 and 2009. But in the first four months of the year, the number of U.S. citizens crossing has risen by 25 percent over the same period last year, according to figures provided to the state by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Still, areas such as Avenida Revolucion and downtown Rosarito Beach that have catered to the traditional U.S. tourist market have been devastated. Also struggling is the coastal real estate market, where sales plunged as U.S. buyers lost equity in their properties north of the border and no longer could invest in second homes.

Other areas have prevailed, said Jose Avelar, head of Tijuana’s Tourism and Conventions Committee.

“Our national market never declined,” Avelar said.

Also, the city’s lower prices have continued to draw a steady stream of U.S. Latinos who drive down for medical services, weddings and quinceañeras. Now the state government, with an eye toward America’s baby boomers, has launched a major effort to promote medical tourism.

Zullo’s timing is good in many respects, said Max Mejía, a longtime Tijuana gay-rights activist and cultural promoter who has been a key supporter of the festival. Members of Mexico’s gay community are feeling empowered as never before, with the legalization of same-sex marriage in Mexico City late last year.

After years of decline, Avenida Revolucion has seen signs of revival. Local artists have begun setting up studios in empty storefronts, and a bar scene popular with young people is beginning to flourish on Sixth Street. A well-known businessman plans to reopen a shuttered restaurant known for the Caesar salad, first served in Tijuana. At Plaza Santa Cecilia, three gay bars are a beachhead for a growing clientele in the area.

“We recognize the economic productivity of this community,” said Martín Muñoz Aviles, a restaurant owner and head of the plaza’s merchant association, which is backing the festival.

“What the festival does is fill a vacuum,” said the tourism committee’s Avelar.

The committee is among the event’s sponsors, along with the municipal government, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the Baja California Human Rights office and Grupo Modelo, a Mexican brewery.

Even the Avenida Revolucion merchants association, Ceturmex, has come around after some initial reluctance. Members have been displeased with the annual gay-pride march, finding the participants’ behavior out of line and their attitude defiant, said Andrés Méndez, the group’s coordinator. But “the festival is something very separate,” Méndez said.

“It’s led by professionals and they’ve created the conditions that make it family-oriented,” he said.

Zullo speaks little Spanish and has hired two assistants to help him run the festival. Choices Baja’s headquarters is the third floor of a building across from Tijuana’s Wax Museum. Zullo sleeps and works in the converted office space, with large picture windows that look out on gritty urban scenes and the international border.

Though he’s a foreigner, it feels like a sort of homecoming to Zullo. Growing up, he had frequently visited Avenida Revolucion. Three years ago, he reconnected with the city, when he came for gastric bypass surgery and a tummy tuck, and began looking for opportunities.

Zullo, the founder and chief executive of a chain of drug, alcohol and mental health treatment facilities in Long Beach, Santa Ana and Los Angeles , said he was bored with meetings and looking for a challenge. As a UCLA graduate and former Peace Corps volunteer in Ukraine, he has traveled extensively, and saw Tijuana as an interesting possibility.

Where some would see ravaged, abandoned buildings, Zullo now sees possibilities.

“This could be a great property, to remake it into a gay- and lesbian-interest business, a restaurant, an Internet cafe for travelers,” he said recently, appraising a white structure with hints of art deco.

“I remember going to these bars as a college student, and this whole Revolucion area was 24 hours, lots of people coming down here all the time,” he said.

Back then, the city wouldn’t have wanted a gay bar, but times have changed.

“They’re now willing to try different things,” Zullo said. “I see a great business opportunity.”

Healthcare Reform, which was passed at the end of March, will have a very positive impact on outbound Medical Tourism from the United States. Health insurance costs, which are already unattainable and too expensive for many Americans, will significantly rise with the passage of healthcare reform. This increase in cost will make medical tourism very attractive to many US citizens.

“We’ll see more US insurance companies and employers implementing medical tourism as a cost-savings approach,” said Edelheit.

Other topics Edelheit addresses are lifetime limits, Medicare and Medicaid, fines US citizens will face if they do not purchase healthcare and the burden companies and employers will encounter upon healthcare reform.

The video is available on the new informational center launched by the Medical Tourism Association, which contains updates on Healthcare Reform’s affect on Medical Tourism.

source: pr.com

Additionally, it will include “white papers on healthcare reform’s affect on medical tourism” and webinars. The site, which will contain videos, podcast, webinars and white papers, will be a place to stay educated and learn what opportunities healthcare reform provides to the medical tourism industry.

Healthcare Reform will have a very positive impact on outbound Medical Tourism from the United States. Health insurance costs, which are already unattainable and too expensive for many Americans, will significantly rise with the passage of healthcare reform. This increase in cost will make medical tourism very attractive to many US citizens.

“The adoption of Healthcare Reform in the US has created a huge opportunity for the medical tourism industry. Healthcare Reform will significantly increase the cost of health insurance in the US, encouraging more US insurance companies and employers to implement medical tourism to make health insurance more affordable. We are already seeing a huge increase in activity from self funded employers, and insurance agents,” said Jessica Johnson, Director of Operations of the Medical Tourism Association.

Healthcare Reform will have no affect on inbound medical tourism to the United States and patients from other countries will continue to seek treatment in the US without any change or effect.

Healthcare Reform will be a major focus of the upcoming World Medical Tourism and Global Healthcare Congress, September 22nd-24th 2010 in Los Angeles, California. This is the MTA’s annual conference and features up to 2,000 attendees from over 60 countries.

The Medical Tourism Magazine is a bi-monthly Medical Tourism industry magazine in both print and electronic versions. The Medical Tourism Magazine will address important issues affecting the Medical Tourism industry such as quality of health care overseas, legal issues surrounding medical tourism and will have a primary focus on the quality of healthcare available at leading international hospitals.

The Medical Tourism Association seeks to provide transparency in both quality of care and pricing. Every day it is apparent that the globalization of healthcare has created a very flat world. The MTA exchanges technology, information, communication, physicians and patients. In order to ensure patient safety, it is the goal of the MTA to create a transparency about the quality of healthcare that can be found in each country. With this, it is increasingly important to create a transparency in pricing as well, so patients traveling overseas for care can be sure of what they are receiving without hidden costs or unforeseen expenses. The Medical Tourism Association is also working on the Quality of Care Project, which will change the way individuals look at the reporting of global healthcare statistics and the quality of care available at hospitals around the world.

# # #

The MTA is the first international non-profit assn. made up of the top international hospitals, healthcare providers, medical travel facilitators, insurance companies, members with the common goal of promoting the highest level of quality of healthcare.

source: prlog.org

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

“The local market itself offers vast opportunities. The number of Saudis going abroad for medical treatment has decreased over the last three years due to the downturn and the availability of world-class medical services and facilities in the Kingdom itself,” he said, noting that “there are already a number of hospitals and clinics promoting medical tourism in the Kingdom, mainly in Riyadh and Jeddah.

Complementing these developments is the constant expansion of the country’s advanced health system.”

“However, there are some challenges that need to be addressed, foremost of which is the lack of overseas marketing for the Kingdom’s health sector,” Ziyad said. “Future promotions should focus on pediatrics, obesity and eye treatments, which are most sought after by foreigners. Local expertise in stem cell and infertility treatment is also rapidly improving,” he pointed out.

On the regional front, he said the Gulf’s travel sector has fared far better than those in other parts of the world over the past two years, so the potential for added capacity, especially in light of an expected recovery in 2010, is still strong.

“I would like to note though, that the Kingdom has the advantage of being the only country in the region which did not record declines in Revenue Per Available Room (RevPAR), Average Daily Room Rate (ADR) or occupancy rate in 2009.

I again attribute this mainly to the country’s thriving religious tourism business, which is also the main competitive advantage of KAIA as it is located close to the cities of Mecca and Medina, two of the holiest places in Islam. In fact, the airport has a Haj Terminal specially built to accommodate foreign pilgrims taking part in the annual Haj,” the amiable president of Elaf Group said.

Commenting on the expansion of the King Abdul Aziz International Airport (KAIA), he said an important focal point is religious tourism, as millions of people visit the Kingdom each year to perform the Haj and Umrah rituals.

Moreover, the Kingdom has been able to combine the appeal of its timeless desert environment and unique culture with its steady progress in areas such as education and technology, and this will be important to filing in capacity, he observed.

He added that the primary markets that support the airport expansion is the Middle East in general, and Morocco, Egypt and Turkey in particular, given the population density of those states.

Moreover, commenting on the online ticketing and its impact on travel agents, Ziyad said though the trend has become very popular throughout the country because of its simplicity and accessibility, still majority of travelers prefer to purchase tickets through travel agents.

“There is a valuable level of trust in face-to-face transactions that still makes agencies the best option for making travel arrangements,” he pointed out.

More travel agents have put up their own websites, so what is happening is that people book temporarily through the portal and then purchase the tickets in person. This has become a safer and more efficient option for many customers, he explained.

For this year, the president of Elaf Group said “our main focus is to maintain the highest levels of service quality, especially as we expect renewed interest in travel within the next few months. We also want to expand capacity, so we plan to open new hotels and increase the number of rooms in our existing facilities.” There are a number of major activities scheduled within the year as well “which we will be announcing soon,” he added.

Source: Saudi Gazette.com

The Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) has a new partnership with the Rotana Group, the Arab world’s largest entertainment company, to raise the profile of Korea’s healthcare services among patients from Gulf states, including Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman.

Rotana will feature segments on Korea’s medical tourism on its TV programmes and other media outlets. Rotana is a pan-Arab media conglomerate that includes a film production company, a magazine, a television station (Rotana TV) and other media ventures.

Jin Soo-nam of KTO says, “The Gulf region is a huge market for Korea’s medical tourism industry. There is a huge demand for heart surgery and eye treatment in the Middle East.”

With help from Rotana, the KTO hopes to attract 10,000 patients from the Middle East by 2013.The KTO will first put an emphasis on attracting cosmetic surgery patients.

source: treatmentabroad.com