Care Tourism

South Korea plastic surgery sparks a boom in medical tourism industry. (Photo Shutterstock)

Seoul , South Korea

A crowd of young women wait nervously in the lobby of a popular plastic surgery clinic in Apgujeong, the affluent neighborhood at the heart of Gangnam. Photographs of Korean pop singers and actresses line the walls, winsome customers who smile next to their cosmetic surgeons.

“It’s painful, but I really want a face like those Korean actress girls,” says a Chinese patient leaving a check-up—with her nose wrapped in a surgical bandage.

Many customers have traveled to this neighborhood—home to some 400 plastic surgery hospitals—all the way from China, Japan and Southeast Asia. They’re hoping to take home a little “Gangnam style” for themselves.

That isn’t just a Psy reference . Gangnam is popular from an Asia-wide trend made famous over the past decade: The popularity of Korean television shows and pop singers known as the “Korean Wave.”

Plastic surgery is a lucrative trade in South Korea, with citizens edging out Greece, Italy and the U.S. as the most cosmetically enhanced people  in the world.

It’s also attracting a torrent of medical tourists. In 2011, the country’s income from medical tourism income reached $116 million, double from five years earlier, according to government statistics.

At the Grand Plastic Surgery Clinic, surgeons offer procedures for the rounded eyes and pointy nose—just a few examples—that are a standard of beauty in Asia.

The Grand Clinic is one of Gangnam’s most successful ventures, attracting celebrity customers and offering regular tours to Korean television crews. “A lot of people want to be like they are in Hollywood,” said Huh Chul, a cosmetic surgeon. “There is glamour to it.”

For a neighborhood that amounts to the Beverly Hills of Seoul, the prices aren’t ghastly. An eyelift costs around $1,500 to $2,000, while a nose job hovers around $3,000 to $4,000 depending on the hospital.

But don’t be mistaken. In South Korea, this is no longer a woman’s pastime. Men are getting their faces restructured  in big numbers, too.

South Korea’s plastic surgery industry

In 1996, South Korea joined the club of developed countries, the OECD. It was the first major landmark that signified the country was gathering the expertise and technology to build a plastic surgery industry.

In the mid-2000s, as the “Korean Wave” picked up momentum, the nation saw a corresponding boom of travelers seeking medical procedures in Seoul. Grand Plastic Surgery Clinic started out with a single doctor working in a subway station, but grew to include some 30 doctors during those years, said Huh Chul, the doctor.

More recently, South Korea has been trying to appeal to medical tourists. Seoul is setting itself up as a hub competing with Thailand and India, but offering more reliable medical expertise and higher quality facilities.

For tourists, plastic surgery is the second most popular procedure behind internal medicine.

But the “Korean Wave” is only one factor boosting plastic surgery.

“Korea also offers price competitiveness and quality,” said Jiyun Yu, a senior researcher at the Korea Tourism and Culture Institute, a policy think-tank in Seoul. “We are not behind the American doctors in terms of expertise.”

Celebrity underworld: Propofol

The booming plastic surgery industry comes with a shady side. In late January, Seoul prosecutors announced they were launching a wide-reaching investigation into celebrities who abuse Propofol—a powerful anesthetic used in the operations.

The intravenously injected drug quickly puts patients to sleep after exhausting days of rehearsals, performances and fan pressure. Addiction to Propofol contributed to the death of Michael Jackson.

In December, police raided seven hospitals in Gangnam, alleging that several clinics have been prescribing Propofol illegally to celebrities for non-medical purposes. Bringing in celebrities is good for advertising.

So far, prosecutors have called in two prominent Korean actresses for questioning over their supposed abuse of the narcotic.

Even though one in five South Korean women admits to going under the knife, the practice hasn’t entirely shed its stigma.

South Korean men—especially older ones—revile the idea of dating or marrying a “sung-gui,” slang for “plastic surgery monster.” The lewd term refers to a person who has lost natural beauty to inappropriate botox injections and surgical treatments, giving off a fake and sometimes bloated appearance.

But given the pressures of this fiercely competitive society, others say an eye-tuck and facelift are prerequisites to getting ahead.

“You don’t understand!” exclaimed a university student at a pub, who asked not to be named after she went through three operations. “To be Korean is to get plastic surgery. You must do it, or young people will think you’re weird.”

source:  http://www.voxxi.com / Home> LifeStyle / source: Geoffrey Cain / Global Post / February 26th, 2013

Monte Carlo , MONACO :

Current trends in the medical tourism industry indicate that the needs of international patients are challenging health service providers to come up with advanced solutions for quality healthcare outcomes. The basic question of a medical traveler is always ‘Who is the best doctor?’ This new approach – benchmarking for outcomes – will ensure medical tourism is more focused on patient-centered medicine.

The topic of benchmarking of effective outcomes in the global medical travel industry will be one of the topics discussed at The International Medical Travel Exhibition and Conference (IMTEC 2013) which is a two-day conference that will provide a transparent platform for both consumers and service providers to understand the latest trends and drivers in the global medical tourism industry. Taking place for the first time on 22-23 March at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco, IMTEC 2013 will host the leaders and thinkers in the medical travel arena to learn and discuss the latest developments in the medical travel market. IMTEC is organised by Informa Life Sciences Exhibitions, the organisers of the world’s second largest healthcare exhibition ‘Arab Health’, in strategic cooperation with the European Medical Travel Conference (EMTC).

According to Dr. Uwe Klein, Chairman of IMTEC 2013, “Within the medical travel industry, competition is not only for the most advanced hospitals, but increasingly for the best healthcare solutions associated with the competencies and skills of a particular doctor or medial team. If patients could learn more about their rights and entitlements in cross-border healthcare, they would be more easily converted into medical travelers. Patients need to have access to ‘neutral’ information about their medical travel options from non-commercial organizations so that they can be assured that they are being given impartial information when making decisions about cross-border healthcare options. Facilitators have a special responsibility here and IMTEC once more gives the opportunity to discuss and to challenge legal and ethical standards in medical travel.”

IMTEC 2013 is launching its Commissioners of Medical Travel (CMT) Programme at this year’s event. CMTs are qualified healthcare facilitators and purchasers from across the globe, who will be invited to attend the IMTEC exhibition. The confirmed institutions joining the CMT Programme who will be present in Monaco and seeking partners to add to their international network include New Patient Foundation, Dubai, UAE; Companion Global Healthcare Group, USA; ACE for Health Tourism, Kuwait; Outassurance Brokers, Tanzania; Ukraine Regional Network, Ukraine; Panorama Medica Group, Thailand; Metlife Amplico, Poland, and many more.

“I believe the market projections in medical travel are undervalued in the sense that they only include the cost of treatments availed by patients, what it is not able to measure are the investments that come with the development of the industry,” says Joyce Alumno, Executive Director & Chief Strategist of HealthCORE Research, Communications & Management, Inc. in the Philippines, and Advisory Board member for IMTEC 2013.

“Asian countries are still seen as the main players in medical tourism given the low cost of treatments and young demographic profile that pose bigger potentials in the years to come. If efforts are sustained, the number of medical travelers is expected to grow since the ageing population is increasing exponentially and the developed countries like the US, Canada, Australia and some European countries are experiencing the burden of healthcare costs. For attendees spending on their registration fees at IMTEC, they would like to get a return on their investments by being able to generate business by understanding the different markets better and knowing what strategies will work. Having someone talk from organized groups who have been steadily sending patients overseas will be a very interesting topic.”

Key speakers at IMTEC 2013 include Ms. Laila Al Jassmi, CEO of Health Policy and Strategy Sector, Dubai Health Authority (DHA), UAE; Dr. Paolo Giordano, Managing Director, European Union of Private Hospitals (UEHP), France; Josef Woodman, President, Patients Beyond Borders, USA; Dr. William Ruschhaupt, Chairman Global Health Center, Cleveland Clinic, USA; Ruben Toral, Founder and Director, Medeguide, Thailand; and Isabel de la Mata, Principal Adviser, SANCO – Heath & Consumers, European Commission, Luxembourg.

Source:  http://www.traveldailynews.com/ Home> News> Special Interest Travel> Spa & Health / by Theodore Koumelis / February 27th, 2013