Category Archives: Medical Tourism/Health Tourism

Medical tourism heading to Queenstown

Posted on August 7, 2013 | Comments Off on Medical tourism heading to Queenstown
Photo / File / Mark Mitchell

Photo / File / Mark Mitchell

Medical tourism is coming to Queenstown, with a stem cell centre planned to be operating by the start of next year.

It would start treating sportsmen and osteoarthritis suffers, with a view to later treating multiple sclerosis and diabetes.

Prof Richard Boyd, of Monash University, Melbourne, told delegates at the New Zealand College of Appearance Medicine conference – being held in the Otago resort – about his plans for the centre.

It would be an extension of Queenstown Regenerative Medicine and a collaboration between the resort’s regenerative medicine movers and shakers; Marcelle Noble and Dr Peter Britton, Dr John Flynn of the Gold Coast in Australia and Prof Boyd.

Professor Boyd is the director of Immunology and Stem Cell Laboratories at Monash University.

Ms Noble is the owner and director of Queenstown Regenerative Medicine (QRM) and said discussions are under way for a purpose-built centre, funded by private investors. A location has not been confirmed but is likely to be near the Remarkables Park Shopping Centre and at a “high end” standard.

A cryopreservation facility to store stem cells, umbilical cord blood and amnion is an expected future development, with Prof Boyd yesterday emphasising the value of the amnion – a sack filled with stem cells involved in embryo development during pregnancy.

“Bank it, donate it but don’t discard it,” he said.

Prof Boyd said Queenstown’s mixture of types and quantity of sports injuries and proactive people involved in regenerative medicine were major reasons why the resort was chosen.

A procedure which “stops the pain” (platelet rich plasma) from causes such as osteoarthritis is already available in the resort at QRM. Stem cell therapy was a step up because it also worked towards “fixing” the issue.

Ms Noble said the market for such a centre “is huge”.

New Zealand and Australia’s strong medical reputation in the United States helped.

Stem cells would come from a person’s own fat, and the treatment price is estimated at between $7000 and $9000 for the initial treatments of sports injuries and osteoarthritis.

As people get older stem cells are less viable, and Ms Noble said there is also market demand for a cryopreservation centre to store stem cells as an insurance for a person’s future health.

“Bring them to Queenstown for a holiday for a week and couple it with banking their stem cells,” she said.

Queenstown would be the only centre in New Zealand to offer both the plasma and stem cell therapy.

– Otago Daily Times

source: http://www.nzherald.com / The New Zealand Herald / Home> National / by Christina McDonald / Friday,  August 02nd, 2013

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Posted in Health /Medical Treatment For Overseas Treatment, Medical Tourism/Health Tourism, Medical Treatment/Health Treatment Subject By Speciality, Reports,Features, Statistics, Travelling For Surgery Abroad / Medical Surgery Overseas

Cuba looks to medical tourism to entice international visitors

Posted on August 5, 2013 | Comments Off on Cuba looks to medical tourism to entice international visitors

Topics: cuba / [Image via Agence France-Presse]

Topics: cuba / [Image via Agence France-Presse]

Football legend Diego Maradona blazed a path for Cuba to become a medical tourism destination when he traveled to the island for drug addiction treatment in 2000.

Since then, thousands of other famous and not-so-famous faces have traveled here for help, and the government wants to build on that success.

Drug rehab, post-accident motor skills rehabilitation, treatment for eye diseases and plastic surgery — foreign patients can get all of these services and more in Cuba, and at competitive prices.

“I’ve improved tremendously. Now I can move my arms and my legs, and I can almost sit down by myself,” said Venezuelan Cruz Ramos, who arrived in Cuba two months ago, so injured after a car accident that he could only move his eyes.

In downtown Havana, at a clinic that specializes in eye procedures, fellow Venezuelan Carlos Armando Montana gushes about the services.

“Medical attention here is excellent, as much for the quality of the doctors as for the atmosphere and the facilities,” said Montana, 24, who underwent a retina transplant after losing the use of his left eye in a fireworks accident.

Cuba has long been known for producing quality doctors and providing excellent medical services, and as the communist government of President Raul Castro seeks to revive the island’s moribund economy, it is turning to medical tourism as a revenue generator.

Cuba’s main source of foreign income is the sale of medical services to other countries — legions of doctors and nurses, who are public employees, travel abroad to work following an agreement with the host country.

While this generates billions of dollars a year, the related field of medical tourism is still in its infancy.

Servimed, a government-owned for-profit medical services company that caters to foreigners, has website pages in Spanish, French and English, the last two aimed mostly at Canadians.

“Cuba is a poor country which has placed its priorities in the right places, which is to say, in education and health services,” reads the site.

“We offer the opportunity to be seen and treated by qualified doctors without the delays that one would encounter while trying to visit a doctor in Canada.”

Cuba welcomed 2.8 million tourists in 2012, according to official figures. There are no figures however on how many of those foreigners came specifically for medical treatment.

“Cuba has the best doctors in the world,” said Maradona after being treated for drug addiction.

The Argentine football legend, who befriended Fidel Castro, was so enamored with the island that he has a tattoo of Che Guevara on his right shoulder and an image of Fidel tattooed on his left ankle.

African and Latin American leaders have also sought medical attention in Cuba, including Ecuador’s Rafael Correa and — most notably — the late Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez.

At Havana’s Cira Garcia Clinic, reserved for foreigners, breast augmentation surgery costs $1,248 (940 euros), compared to around $6,000 in the United States, $4,350 in Britain and $2,500 in Mexico, according to figures from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

“In this clinic we handle all types of medical specialties,” said deputy director Maria Antonieta Gonzalez. And if an in-house expert is unavailable, one can be borrowed from another hospital, she said.

There are plenty to choose from: Cuba has the highest number of doctors per residents in the world — one per 148 inhabitants, according to the World Health Organization.

In other countries, “what makes procedures expensive are the doctors, but in Cuba, they are paid like everyone else,” Gonzalez said.

What adds to the cost however is the difficulty in obtaining medical supplies, which cannot be bought in the nearby United States due to a trade embargo in place for a half-century, Gonzalez said.

On any given day there are 2,000 patients at the Cira Garcia from around the world. Most come from Latin America, but there are also patients from places like Angola, Canada, Spain, and even Cuban-Americans from the US.

Other Havana hospitals, like the Hermanos Ameijeiras and the Gonzalez Coro, have opened “international rooms” to cash in on the influx of foreigners.

Hotels are getting into the business too, with places like El Viejo y el Mar (The Old Man and the Sea), Triton and Neptuno catering to medical tourists.

Aside from foreigners who pay in much-needed hard currency, thousands of Venezuelans travel to Cuba each year for free medical treatment, benefitting from an agreement that Chavez signed with Fidel Castro, then president, in 2000.

There are 43 health centers in Cuba that cater to Venezuelans, with the government in Caracas picking up the tab.

[Image via Agence France-Presse]  source: http://www.rawstory.com / The Raw Story / Home / by Agence France-Presse / Tuesday – July 30th, 2013

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Posted in Medical Tourism/Health Tourism, Travelling For Surgery Abroad / Medical Surgery Overseas

Penang medical tourism boom taxes state hospital

Posted on August 4, 2013 | Comments Off on Penang medical tourism boom taxes state hospital
Dr Afif said foreigners are required to pay the full amount when they seek treatment at the Penang Hospital. — Picture by K.E.Ooi

Dr Afif said foreigners are required to pay the full amount when they seek treatment at the Penang Hospital. — Picture by K.E.Ooi

George Town:

The boom in Penang’s medical tourism is not only filling up private hospitals but has spilled over into the state’s general hospital and putting a greater strain on its overworked government medical practitioners.

Private hospitals in the state are referring some of their foreign patients to the Penang Hospital for treatment due to a lack of specialists in certain fields and this is stretching the government hospital’s resources even thinner, said state health executive councillor Dr Afif Bahardin.

“It is hard for them to deal with this. If there’s an emergency between two patients, one is local and one is foreign, which one should they save first?” he asked.

A government hospital’s main purpose is to provide subsidised healthcare to Malaysians, but with foreigners being increasing referred to it, locals will have to “fight” for an appointment with a specialist or for bed space in the wards.

Penang received more than 300,000 medical tourists in 2011 and the state accounted for 60 per cent of the total foreign medical tourists to Malaysia in the same year.

“The Penang Hospital keeps receiving referral cases of foreign patients from private hospitals, sometimes to see a specialist which the private hospital does not have,” Dr Afif said.

This issue is also due to a shortage of specialists in various sub-sectors of the medical field.

“There are specialists only available in Penang Hospital in the whole state such as the rheumatologist and the nuclear medicine specialist and there are specialists like a cochlear implant specialist only available at a private hospital here in the northern region so not all hospitals have all specialists in all fields,” he said.

A shortage in specialists is common as from a pool of 10 doctors, only five would go into a specialist field and out of the five, one or two would go into a sub-specialty like rheumatology.

A rheumatologist is a sub-specialty that deals with rheumatology diseases while nuclear medicine uses molecular therapy and radiopharmaceuticals for diagnosis and therapy.

Dr Afif said Penang Hospital had raised the issue recently with the hospital director and staff as foreign patients were taking up limited beds and filling up their appointments book with some of the hospital specialists.

Sometimes the foreign patients could not afford a longer stay at the private hospital to recuperate or even under the intensive care unit (ICU), so they transfer to the Penang Hospital instead, he added.

Dr Afif said the foreigners were required to pay the full amount when they seek treatment at the Penang Hospital but the bill is far cheaper than what it would cost at a private hospital.

Some foreign patients opted to transfer to the government hospital when they discovered they had to extend their stay as they could no longer afford the pricey private hospital.

“We can’t turn away medical tourists so that is why we have to arrange a dialogue session between the private and public hospitals to come to an amicable solution on this,” he said.

Dr Afif said one of the solutions that had been suggested was for private hospitals to take in medical tourists based on their respective resource capacities and capabilities so as to reduce future spillovers to the public hospital.

Source: http://www.themalaymailonline.com/ The Malay Mail Online.com /  Home> Malaysia / by Opalyn Mok / July 30th, 2013

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Posted in Medical Tourism/Health Tourism

Thailand Tourism Kicks Off Its “Find Your Fabulous” Campaign and an Array of Exclusive Deals for Medical Travelers

Posted on August 3, 2013 | Comments Off on Thailand Tourism Kicks Off Its “Find Your Fabulous” Campaign and an Array of Exclusive Deals for Medical Travelers

Bangkok : 

The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) joins hands with Thai Airways International, Asia Web Direct, and more than 30 leading providers of health, beauty, and spa treatments to launch a digital marketing initiative promoting the country’s thriving health and wellness industry.

The campaign takes aim at women in the Asia-Pacific market, including Thailand, who are looking for ways to rediscover themselves. The offer is for a wide selection of exclusive deals on wellness and beauty treatments, spa packages, and hotel stays in Thailand.

According to TAT’s Governor, Mr. Suraphon Svetasreni, “From studies on medical tourists’ behaviors, we learned that most of them research and book reservations for health and beauty services online. So we launched the ‘Find Your Fabulous‘ digital marketing campaign to promote the health and beauty segment of Thailand’s tourism industry.

“Fortunately for us, and for medical travelers, over 30 leading providers of wellness-related services including clinics, spas, and health centers signed up to offer over 150 packages of exclusive health, beauty, and hotel deals that allow tourists from all over the world to book online and receive special pricing,” he added.

Mr. Suvadhana Sibunruang, Thai Airways’ Director Brand Management and Commercial Communications says, “Thai Airways has always put an emphasis on online marketing and we believe that with our strong network of online channels including websites and social media, as well as the many members of our Royal Orchid Plus (ROP) program, we will be able to expand the marketing and promotion efforts of this campaign and take it to a higher level of success.”

Mr. Olivier Dombey, Executive General Manager of Asia, Wotif Group and Asia Web Direct, adds, “Australia has really good potential for this sort of promotion and is one tourist market that beauty clinics would benefit from focusing on.  Asia Web Direct is a leading online travel agent with a huge Australian customer base, so we are confident that our network of websites, including www.bangkok.com  and  www.phuket.com , will be able to successfully promote the exclusive deals of the ‘Find Your Fabulous‘ campaign.”

TAT’s Governor adds that the “Find Your Fabulous” campaign will strengthen the image of Thailand as the leading beauty and wellness destination in Asia.  We estimate that the promotion will generate more that 50 million Baht of income for health, beauty, and wellness providers in Thailand.”

To learn more, visit www.FindYourFabulousThailand.com.

source: http://www.sacbee.com / The Sacramento Bee / by PR Newswire – The Tourism Authority of Thailand / Monday – July 29th, 2013

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Posted in Associations/Organisations/Government/NonGovernment, Health/Medical/Wellness Marketing And Management, Medical Tourism/Health Tourism

Medical tourism for Americans seeking affordable healthcare

Posted on July 31, 2013 | Comments Off on Medical tourism for Americans seeking affordable healthcare

SOUTH AMERICA – AN OPTION TO BEAT MEDICAL COSTS IN THE UNITED STATES?

CT31jul2013

Central and South America are the top destinations for American medical tourists. Many US healthcare providers have recognized this and are expanding their operations to include branches in other countries. This has the added benefit of giving the expats living in these countries access to high-quality facilities at affordable prices

Since the recession hit more people in the United States of America are looking abroad for healthcare options. There are many popular destinations for medical tourism that provide very affordable care at a quality to equal the USA.

So where offers the best standard of care at the best prices?

ECUADOR

Ecuador is very popular among expat retirees and is steadily building a reputation as a medical tourism destination. Cuenca in particular is catching the attention of medical tourism representatives.

According to expats can expect to pay 7-10% of what they would pay in the US for medical treatments. A heart bypass that would cost US$130,000 in the U.S., will cost closer to US$10,000 in Cuenca and a hip replacement priced at anywhere from US$43,000 to US$51,000, only US$8,000.

It’s not only expats and medical tourists from the US who are taking advantage of the medical system, Ecuadorians living in America often travel home to make use of the affordable healthcare.

COSTA RICA

Often mentioned as the top destination for US expats, the standard of healthcare in Costa Rica is one of the many perks. Expats and medical tourists can choose from one of the private, accredited hospitals again at a cost much lower than they would pay at home.

Waiting times for surgery and treatment are practically non-existent and many doctors are trained in the U.S. meaning most speak good English.

Other countries popular with both expats and medical tourists are Mexico and Panama where outposts of U.S. health care providers offer high quality, affordable treatment options.

source: http://www.eturbonews.com / eTN Global Travel & Industry News / by Juergen Stein / July 27th, 2013

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Posted in Health /Medical Treatment For Overseas Treatment, Medical Tourism/Health Tourism, Medical Treatment/Health Treatment Subject By Speciality, Reports,Features, Statistics, Travelling For Surgery Abroad / Medical Surgery Overseas