There is real debate going on about Medical Tourism regarding the size of industry, trends everywhere.  Now it is almost clear that Medical Tourism as a business is not as big as initially estimated by companies like Deloitte & Touche.  At the same time, one has to agree that it is slowly but surely increasing.

South Korea is attracting patients from neighbouring countries and is on path to compete with Thailand especially for cosmetic surgeries.

Fire Accident in AMRI Hospital, Kolkata a.k.a Calcutta, India is definitely not good news for Medical Tourism industry in India and it shows how important it is for a medical tourist to research the hospital in total not just the quality of Medical Treatment.

Here is an Interesting artcile analyzing the size of Medical Tourism Industry and latest Medical Tourism numbers.

One may dispute the actual number of medical tourists traveling for treatment, but cannot deny the fact that there is tremendous interest about this fast growing industry.  One of the indications is the number of conferences taking place all around the world.

This article is an attempt to list all the medical tourism conferences in one place in hope to help the medical tourism community, agreed it may need constant update.

2nd Annual Medical Tourism Conference	February 23-25, 2011 – Washington DC, USA	Increasing Knowledge in the Medical Tourism Industry- The Growing Importance of Research
Medical Care Beyond Borders	February 10, 2011 – Istanbul, Turkey	How to increase the international patient flow and build a sustainable reputation!
The Second Moscow Medical & Health Tourism Congress (MHTC 2011)	March 17-18, 2011– Expocentre Fairgrounds, Moscow, Russia
Medical Korea 2011	April 12-14, 2011 – Seoul, Korea
2nd Destination Health exhibition	April 15-16, 2011 – London, U.K
Medical Travel Summit	May 2-4, 2011 – San Jose, Costa Rica	Business & Networking
European Medical Travel Conference 2011	April 27-29, 2011 – Barcelona, Spain
International Medical Conference and Exhibition	May 10-13, 2011 – Musqat, Oman	Medical Tourism
2011 World Medical Tourism Conference	May 23-24, 2011 – Las Vegas, U.S.A	Pioneering The Future in Global Healthcare
Global Reproductive and Fertility Tourism Congress & Expo 2011	July 12-15, 2011 – Barcelona, Spain	Reproductive and fertility tourism

You may visit the event's web page by clicking on the link for each conference. As you observe that these conferences are being conducted all around the world. Any of these conferences can be a great place for networking and understanding the industry trends better.

What is the right number of medical tourists from U.S.A? What is the future of Medical Tourism? This is a billion dollar questions indeed.

When ever, a number pops up like millions from U.S.A taking advantage of cheaper health care in other countries, it obviously raises many doubts. Is medical tourism as big as consulting companies Deloitte & Touche projects to be?

In this article let us discuss the medical tourism numbers and medical tourism trends in general.

Only 20% of Americans or about 70 millions have passports as of last year, this number went up substantially in past few years as now Americans need passport to go to Canada, Mexico unlike before. One of the articles published last year suggested that nearly 6 million people visited foreign countries to get treatment. This number does not seem to be right as it means that at least 10 % of those who are eligible to travel went abroad to get just medical/dental procedures done.

In a report on CNN last year Dr.Sanjay Gupta reported that at least 600,000 Americans just go to India for a surgery. According to Indian Tourism Department every year, 5 million foreigners visit India, a break down of these tourists by country could not be found at this time. Now the question is among these 5 million visitors, even if by most generous estimation 2.5 million or 50% of entire visitors could be from U.S.A and do 25% of these travelers just travel to get a procedure done?

Undoubtedly, Medical Tourism is growing in popularity and medical tourism always has been an option and it will be. Now the question is, who all are traveling to get a surgery abroad and how big is this industry.

When it comes to life saving surgeries, in the opinion of this author patients traveling to get treatment because of lack of facilities at home or because of better quality health care outnumber those traveling just for cost reasons. For example, patients from African nations travel to India.

Orthopedic Surgeries like Knee replacement, Hip Replacement, Elective Surgeries/Procedures like nose job, breast augmentation and treatments not available like stem cell therapy are most favored by medical tourists from developed countries. Thailand is the leader in attracting most patients for cosmetic procedures and India leads in Orthopedic surgeries.

Dental tourism, Lasik eye surgery are favored by the leisure travelers, who may want to take advantage of less expensive treatment in a world class facility when they are on vacation.

In the near future, medical tourism will be favored by the diaspora from countries like India, Mexico as they understand the local conditions better than some one just traveling to get treatment.

Relevant links

6 million people travel abroad to get medical treatment

A first hand dental tourism experience

Medical Tourism – Things to Consider

Yes, that is right and it did not start today.  Sri Sathya Sai Institute Of Higher Medical Sciences has been providing this service from past 19 years.

Sri Sathya Sai Medical Trust runs two such world class hospitals, one in Bangalore, India and another one 95 miles away from Bangalore.  Both are super specialty hospitals serving the needs of thousands of patients visiting these hospitals from many parts of the world.  Patients may be poor, rich, from India or any where else, Sri Sathya Sai Hospitals serve all, following Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai's famous teaching "Love All, Serve All".

Mission Statement of this hospital says "

"Sri Sathya Sai Medical Trust provides free medical care to the sick and ailing with the dedication, commitment, love and the best of skills, so that they will be cured in body, mind and spirit. Our Mission is to provide high quality medical care free of charge to all irrespective of caste, creed, religion, and financial status in an atmosphere of love and care."

A brief video about Sri Sathya Sai Hospitals

Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences, Puttaparthi

Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences, Bangalore

Inspired by Sri Sathya Sai, devotess have started a hospital in Rajkot, India providing free heart Surgeries to poor patients.  This hospital's motto is 'Dil without Bill', in Hindi, 'Dil' means Heart.

You can get a glimpse of how this hospital is helping the poor patients in India by watching video below.

To learn more read wikipedia article

That's right, Domestic Medical Tourism.  Galichia Hospitals based in Wichita, Kansas is offering flat rate surgeries for the patients and giving a true choice to those patients who are considering medical tourism as a health care choice.

What makes hospitals like Galichia make an attractive option?

• You are in your home country.  You do not need to worry about factors like political unrest in the destination country or an unforeseen volcanic eruptions.
• Do not have to worry about customs in a foreign country or pay any special attention to your dietary needs.
• You are close to family and friends and they can visit you if they wish without worrying about Visa or passport.

Medical Costs at Galichia

• Have a candid conversation with your doctor, friends and family, learn about all the possible risks and precautions to take.  In brief do your best to obtain all the information to make an informed decision.
• Getting treated while you are on a planned vacation - In this case you already know the destination country possibly a city or region, all that you need to do is find a reputed and accredited hospital or clinic in the region.  There are many resources on the web to find out about the hospitals including TourNCare's Find Hospital feature.
• If your sole purpose of this trip is medical treatment, first thing you need to do is to decide on a country with world class hospitals which has experts in the field.  Visit Joint Commission International website to find an accredited hospital.
• You may also want to decide if you want to use a medical tourism facilitator to help you, you can do research online and TourNCare's Find Facilitators can also be a helpful resource.  Taking help of a medical tourism company could be very helpful.
• Talk to 2 or 3 hospitals in the country you decided to get treatment, many of these hospitals a special department for international patients and some hospitals even offer free consultations with doctors over phone or web to answer any questions you may have.
• Make sure you carry all the documentation, reports, MRI, dental x-rays, it is always a good idea to check with the hospitals regarding what you may need to carry with you.  Use a secured flash drive and make sure that these files are password protected.  There are some tools like MedicKey to help carrying the medical records securely.
• Make sure that the hospital has translatory services, understands your culture and addresses your dietary needs.
• Plan your trip well, make arrangements for your local travel to visit any tourist places.  Use tools like Trip Advisor, Kayak, MakeMyTrip.com to find good deals.
• If you need a wheel chair because of arthritis or knee surgery, plan on taking one or buy when you are there.
• If you want to stay after surgery for extended period, it may be a good idea to consider a guest house than a hotel as service is more personalized, again Trip Advisor could be a good place to research your options.
• Take emotional factors in to consideration too, as it is very tough to be away from family during a recovery, when one needs lot of emotional support.  It will be very comforting to have at least one close family member with you during your medical journey.  Use all the technology like Skype, Google Talk, Vonage to keep in touch with your family and friends.

Posting your story online helps thousands of patients in making a decision about their health travel.

A good article about both domestic and foreign medical tourism is published in NCPA, this article discusses how some of the companies are negotiation prices with clinics in U.S and else where to lower the costs.

Medical Tourism

In U.S.A, some companies like home improvement chain Lowe's are coming in to agreement with hospitals like Cleaveland clinic for local medical travel.

Employees of such companies benefit, as they can avoid travel across continents and also get treated in familiar medical facility.  Deductibles and travel expenses are waived by the companies.

Employers also benefit as they save substantial amounts.

Aticle in Kaiser Health News

Some hospitals are offering Flat Rate surgeries in U.S.A, this may also increase domestic medical travel.

Article in Kaiser Health news

New Delhi is the capital city of India and a popular destination for health travelers. New Delhi has number of world class hospitals and many tourists from across the world visit this historic city every year.

In January, flights are delayed very frequently for fog and it can be very cold. Best weather is between September and January.

India issues medical visas to the patient and a companion for 6 months. Government of India is promoting medical tourism as an Industry.

Citizens of Finland, Luxembourg, Japan, New Zealand and Singapore can get a visa on arrival to India.

It is very important to be very careful about your health when you are in India especially when you are a medical tourist. It is advised to drink bottled water.

Movie embedded here gives information about some of the hospitals. To find out the hospital details, you may use TourNCare's Find Functionality.

Most common language spoken is Hindi. It may be helpful to hire a guide, preferably referred/arranged by the hospital or hotel.

Local currency is Rupee and 1 U.S dollar is approximately equal to 45 rupees. You often listen to following words when it comes to numbers. 100,000 is called 1 Lakh and 10 million is called 1 crore. Temperatures are measured in centigrade and distance in Kilo meters.

If you or some one you know opted for medical travel, please post your experiences by becoming a member of TourNCare. Please suggest, how we can help you better, your opinion is highly valuable.

Many Americans travel to India, Thailand for getting their knees replaced.  There are lot of testimonies on You Tube mainly posted by hospitals.

Below are links to some of the Hospitals which offer Knee Replacement Surgeries.

India

Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Delhi

Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education & Research, Chandigarh

Lilavati Hospital & Research Centre, Mumbai

Bombay Hospital & Medical Research Centre, Mumbai

Wockhardt

**Wockhardt's Bangalore locations seems to be pretty popular

Thailand's Bumrungrad also offers knee replacement surgery

There are lot more hospitals which offer Knee replacement surgery like Apollo Group and also Hospitals in Singapore, which can be found by Going to Find Hospitals feature of TourNCare Patients opting for medical tourism, should consult their doctors to find which option is better for them and also to find out if they are fit enough to travel.

This blog is posted as a visitor requested for information.