Thai hospital owner eyes more buys, as medical tourism gets tough
Financial Times (blog)
For the medical tourism industry, the great hope is the US insurance market: if US patients and their insurers can be persuaded to take advantage.
Our opinions and views matter a lot and so do the opinions and views of others. Human beings tend to form views and opinions about just anything and everything. The opinions that we form can influence someone else’s thinking to a great extent, and if the opinions and views belong to a reliable person or a credulous source then the magnitude of influence amplifies. Nowadays, the influence of social media has increased so much that every person prefers to consider the views and opinions of other people before doing anything in their respective lives.
Suppose a person is on a lookout for a new Smartphone, he will never go straightaway to the shop and buy one. First of all he would consult his friends and ask them about their views on the cell phone, and then he would search the web for reviews and then finally take a decision of buying that Smartphone. Likewise, when a person starts planning for a vacation, he would never choose a place about which he has not heard some positive reviews, after an intensive research on places and people’s feedback on them, finally one decides a place. Similarly, there are multifarious things about which one prefers to take into consideration the views and opinions of others to be on a safer side.
Thai hospital owner eyes more buys, as medical tourism gets tough
Financial Times (blog)
For the medical tourism industry, the great hope is the US insurance market: if US patients and their insurers can be persuaded to take advantage.
Medical tourism a potential boon for KPJThe Borneo Post
Posted on December 15, 2010, Wednesday KUCHING: The immense potential from the medical tourism sector — which was described as a hidden jewel — and the …
I was on my way to dubai, as soon as I came out of my flight, I was stunned to see a personality, we all want to meet. Without wasting a second, I quickly grabbed a paper from my pocket, very happily he signed on that small paper with his stylish big A, though his sign was shorter on my paper then one he signs on cheque in india’s most popular TV show but it was impressive enough to keep me indulge. Hmmmm, I suppose you have got it by now. Since dubai film festival is going on its not hard for you to imagine why was he in city of life. Love him. Prem
Leading health experts on Tuesday said that Gujarat had the potential to emerge as a healthcare hub, but also added that a lot of work still needs to be done on that front to translate it into a reality.
“Gujarat, one of the leading states in India, has all the makings to emerge as a popular medical tourism hub,” said leading medical tourism consultant, Prem Jagyasi, talking on the sidelines of the healthcare seminar at PDPU, Gandhinagar. However, he added, for this to happen the state needs to improve the medical facilities and also develop supporting infrastructure.
Speaking at the seminar, the CEO of Jupiter Hospital in Thane, Ajay Thakkar said, “Gujarat is uniquely positioned and can attract both international and domestic medical tourists. The fact that a large number of Indian expatriates are Gujaratis can benefit the state in becoming a medical tourism hub.”
If Singapore and Thailand could attract a million medical tourists every year, Gujarat had the potential to get two million medical tourisms in 10 years from now, said state health minister Jaynarayan Vyas.
“The state government is taking several steps to promote medical tourism. Large investments are being made into healthcare sector, and more money will be pumped into the sector,” Vyas said.
The health tourism sector will make bigger contribution to the state’s GDP than industry by 2025, he added, calling upon the participants to tap the vast potential in the state’s healthcare sector.
During the seminar, the participants deliberated on trends like setting up of Medicities, alternative financing in healthcare, healthcare education and setting up of new projects through Public Private Partnership model.
While the experts were enthusiastic about Gujarat’s prospects at emerging as a healthcare hub, they however, said that a lot of countries were vying for the medical tourism pie, and Gujarat would have to do a lot of work for becoming a player to reckon with in the field.
“The state needs to work on strengthening the medical infrastructure if it has to attract medical tourists,” said Marwan Abdulaziz, director, business development, Dubai Healthcity.
Consultant Jagyasi, said, “Medical tourism is not just about low costs, there are also other factors that decide where a particular patient travels to. So there is a need to work on high quality healthcare, perception of the destination and develop tourism benefits. The government must also ensure that the healthcare system remains available, affordable and accessible.”
Online social networking sites provide a good platform for individuals and patients to get medical advice easily. However, a health expert has cautioned not to follow them blindly.
“People can learn a lot from the social media. We get to know the opinions of friends, colleagues and the patients who are suffering from the same medical condition like migraine, and learn their routine. Because doctors are so busy nowadays they might not be able to give you extensive information but you can get this now online,” Dr Prem Jagyasi, MD and CEO of ExHealth, Dubai, and founder of the Global Healthcare Network, told Khaleej Times.
“However, since the social media is not well-monitored, there is no authenticity and no control of the content. Anyone can basically write anything and that’s the danger,” he warned.
“So you need to make sure that you only follow established chapters and organisations. Go to websites that are government-owned. There are also very good private websites but look for the HoN logo (certified by the Health on the Net Foundation) which will authenticate that this information is from very good resources,” he suggested.
Although social networking sites such as At his presentation at the World Health Care Congress (WHCC) Middle East last week, Dr Jagyasi noted the growing trends and impact of social media in healthcare in areas of education, communication and marketing.
He said that among the “prosumers”, or consumers who proactively seek out health information, 80 per cent seek it for themselves and on average check out five sites to get the most accurate information.
They seek out information primarily to see what other consumers say about a certain medication or treatment, as well as, to research other consumer’s knowledge and experiences, added Dr Jagyasi.
For the last 10 years, internet users in the Middle East increased by 1825.3 percent, more than four times than that of the rest of the world. As of June 2010, internet penetration in the Middle East stands at 29.8 per cent of the population while it is 28.7 per cent in the rest of the world.
Among the countries in the region, the UAE account for the second highest internet users at 75.9 per cent of the population, following Bahrain at 88 per cent.
The Honorable Health Minister of Gujarat Mr Jaynarayan Vyas along with senior dignitaries expressed great interest in making Gujarat as a leading Medical Tourism Destination by developing comprehensive support system. Among the key speaker was invited guest, Honorable Health minister of punjab Mr Sud, who appreciated work of Gujarat.
It was my pleasure to participate in panel discussion with honorable health minister, where I got opportunity to discuss about growing trends of medical tourism and how individual states can develop strategies.
Gujarat healthcare system has many feathers in his cap, its the first state govt in india to launch e-mamta program for pregnant women and infants. A techy system in which they record activities of pregnant women and update them with SMS about important prenatal and postnatal care.
Rural healthcare program is another great initiative, where they are empowering rural population by providing sufficient infrastructure for health, education, water & electricity. Mr Vyas made very clear remarks on supporting rural development. Gujarat has pledge to develop more medical colleges, as they are going witness tremendous growth in Healthcare.
The ‘foster healthcare for all’ is run event for upcoming Vibrant Gujarat event which will take place in Jan 2011.
Dr Prem Jagyasiwww.DrPrem.com
I am in Gujarat to speak in “fostering Healthcare for all” an internationalseminar on responsive and inclusive healthcare.
Its good too see that government of Gujrat has taken initiative to do ainternational seminar on responsive and inclusive healthcare. What’s mostimportant that gujrat government is putting equlant efforts to promote andgrow health system in rural area as well. The states healthcare quality hasrisen to rs 1900 crores in the current year which is rise of 58% over thelast year.
High quality treatment and cost effective services with state of art medicalfacilities will give states medical tourism growth.
The state is also emerging as a clinical research hub on stem cell therapy,infertility, foetal medicine, cardiac drugs and others.
Dr Prem Jagyasiwww.DrPrem.com
Taiwan’s health tourism attracting thousands of Chinese 2010/12/02 21:50:08 Taipei, Dec. 2 (CNA) Thousands of Chinese nationals visited Taiwan to have health checkups in the first eight months of this year, taking advantage of the medical tourism offered to Chinese tourists since 2008, a health official said Wednesday. Tallies show that more than 3,000 Chinese who arrived as part of tour groups received health checkups during their visits to Taiwan in the eight months, said Shih Chung-liang, director of the Bureau of Medical Affairs under the Department of Health, at a conference on cross-Taiwan Strait medicine and healthcare cooperation. Chinese visitors, attracted by Taiwan’s advanced medical skill and equipment, are willing to pay as much as NT$100,000 (US$3,289) for a half-day or full-day medical examination. Medical tourism has been working out well in terms of Chinese tourists, so is not scheduled to be on the agenda of the next round of talks between the top cross-strait negotiators of the two sides, Shih said
Hurriyet Daily News
Health tourism rises on private sector shouldersHurriyet Daily News Read more
Chennai, Dec 6 (PTI) As part of efforts to promote medical tourism, the Tamil Nadu government is planning to bring out tourism brochures in consultation …
http://news.in.msn.com/national/article.aspx?cp-documentid%3D4663563
ExHealth understands the growing importance of corporations to exude a sense of responsibility in the communities they are engaged with. Utilising the team’s extensive understanding of social and preventive health, ExHealth carves special platforms which convey the partnering company’s sense of dependability to the -community at large. ExHealth’s solutions range from short-term multi-partner events to longer term customised and standardised engagements, which are replicable and scalable for ease of execution and management.
www.ExHealth.com
World healthcare congress middle east got great support and response from HAAD and other officials, excellent speakers.
Yesterday, HAAD team spoke about Healthcare reform in Abu Dhabi, a great initiative and how reform has effected overall healthcare delivery and outcome. The highlight of the discussion was that HAAD had to invest a lot to initiate a reform, which is now helping them to reduce the cost overall. Prem
Recently I visited Health tourism congress Turkey, organized in support withhealth ministry and tourism board got good response, the congress wasattended by many official delegates from health ministry from neighboringcountry. My topic of discussion was Reviews of Health Tourism Destination. Ispoke about changing dynamism of globalization oh healthcare and how healthtourism is rapidly growing. I also discussed about essential components ofHealth tourism destination, their ranking according to experts and howhealth tourism destinations are promoting health tourism. I will uploadpresentation soon. Read more
Tourism Review
ISRAELI MEDICAL TOURISM HANDICAPS LOCALS
Tourism Review
Israel has recently become attractive for many tourists because of its thriving medical tourism. They visit the country seeking medical treatment there for …
http://www.tourism-review.com/israeli-medical-tourism-on-the-up-locals-lose-out-news2507
Many clients come to Dubai for cosmetic procedures, says Dr Adam Bader, CEO of the American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery Hospital. He cites the instance of an obese woman from Holland who came here for three days and was given a total body sculpture.
“We had two doctors giving her two procedures at the same time,” he said, adding that Dubai is becoming a medical tourism destination. He said her husband did not recognise her 10 days later.
Asked whether surgery was a lazy way out to lose weight, the doctor agreed.
His hospital first offers nutrition support and a psychological evaluation of the patient.
But in some cases as a mother with four children, surgery is needed, he says
Read more at http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/uae/health/cosmetic-surgery-in-vogue-1.719001
Radio Interview of Dr Prem Jagyasi on 104.4 FM in Dubai – Interview by Moe.
Dr Prem Jagyasi Talks about importnace of lifestyle modification to maintain chronic disordes, such as diabetes. The ExHealth team organized a walk in Dubai Festival City, where more than 300 participants came to walk in and around mall. listen to podcast.
Finally, its good to know that governments will do what they do best, and leave healthcare in private hands. However a tight observation on private work would require. Good move. Private company Circle is to take over the running of Cambridgeshire’s Hinchingbrooke Hospital.