| 06 Oct 2008 |
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Crossing the healthcare border
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Josef Woodman is the author of Patients Beyond Borders, a book which addresses the global medical tourism phenomenon. The book has proved to be incredibly successful and with issues arising rapidly in this growing market, Woodman is releasing a series of new editions dedicated to different parts of the world while keeping abreast of all the latest developments. He gives his views on the medical tourism industry.
Why is Patients Beyond Borders relevant to the industry today?
Before Patients Beyond Borders was published, there was no centralised body of consumer information about medical travel. Patients Beyond Borders was written with the patient in mind, providing much-needed information on, for example planning and budgeting a successful medical journey; vetting international providers and practitioners; accreditation; facilities listings; health travel agents, and accommodations listings.
The book has become something of a bible for the medical travel industry as well, directly and indirectly addressing key issues around medical travel, including data on the number of US and worldwide patients crossing borders for care, quality assurance challenges and continuity of care.
What audience are you targeting with this book?
The Patients Beyond Borders World Edition provides information on 21 medical travel destinations worldwide, and is targeted to English-speaking patients around the globe considering medical travel. Country-specific editions target patients who are considering care in a specific destination. For example, the Patients Beyond Borders Singapore Edition (July 2007) was created primarily for a US, Western European and Australian audience, while the Taiwan Edition targets English-speaking patients of Chinese and Taiwanese descent throughout the Chinese diaspora. The Patients Beyond Borders Singapore Edition: Arabic Translation specifically addresses patients living in the Middle East, particularly the Gulf States. Editions for India, Korea, Malaysia and Taiwan are in production.
There seems to be a lot of hype surrounding the phenomenon of medical tourism with little hard data. Do you think it's a big industry, or has it been blown out of proportion?
Good question and one that has not been adequately addressed, either by the industry or the media. Regarding hard medical travel data, the global healthcare world has seen two major reports released over the past few months, one by the management consulting giant McKinsey and the other by Deloitte Touche. These reports contain wildly conflicting data, with McKinsey citing a total of 65,000 medical travelers worldwide in 2007, and Deloitte citing 700,000 patients crossing the borders from the US alone! Thus, McKinsey's report is "under-hyped" while the Deloitte report is spectacularly overstated.
Our research indicates the truth lies somewhere in-between, with around 2-3 million medical travelers worldwide, and 180,000 US patients crossing borders for care. We peg the worldwide medical travel growth rate at around 20% annually. Thus, in our opinion, medical travel is today a modest industry constrained by hospital capacity considerations and lack of consumer familiarity with medical travel. Both McKinsey and Deloitte cite huge upside potential for medical travel, and we agree.
Where do you think the path of medical tourism will take us politically, economically and socially?
Politically, as medical tourism grows from a cottage industry into a larger market trend, we might expect to see increased--and sorely-needed--regulation (of facilities, instrumentation, pharmaceuticals etc), and the growing phenomenon of medical travel will help to augment this trend. Economically, we'll certainly see increased competition from over-priced healthcare economies such as the US, Japan, Germany and Hong Kong. Socially, patients will have more choice in their healthcare, whether it's a patient form the US who might take advantage of lower medical costs, or a UK patient seeking shorter waiting periods for a procedure, or a patient from Vietnam or China seeking a level of quality care not available in his or her country.
We believe that over the course of the next decade medical travel will grow into an integral component of the larger global healthcare arena, and will be a significant contributor in driving its growth.
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For further information please contact:
Peter Donnelly
Science Correspondent
Life Science Division
IIR Middle East
T: +971 4 407 2743
M: +971 50 429 7105
peter.donnelly@iirme.com
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