Globalization & Healthcare: Understanding Health & Medical Tourism

Global competition is evolving rapidly in the health industry. Rich patients from developing nations travel to developed countries for quality medical care. Now, large numbers of patients from developed countries are visiting third world countries for medical treatments. Most of these medical tourists who are not much wealthy are seeking quality medical care at affordable prices from Asian countries. To meet the rising demand, entrepreneurs are building advanced facilities using foreign and domestic capital. They are employing physicians, doctors, technicians and nurses who trained to American and European standards.

Medical tourism is the most modern global phenomenon in the healthcare industry, which is undeniably on a rapid growth with thousands of medical tourists worldwide. Reports show that it is a hundred billion dollar industry now and it is growing. Medical tourism imparts growth not only in the healthcare industry but also develops the travel and tourism sector. Hence more countries are getting transformed into top destination countries for medical tourists. Patients don’t find a flight journey for a medical procedure to be expensive when considering the cost of treatment in their own country.

In USA, a minor surgery can be very costly where the same surgery can cost very less in another country. Another major factor for health tourism to get popular is specialization. Some countries may be advanced in certain procedures while another country may be advanced in some other procedures. Time is another factor which is considered by patients when the operation is to be carried out immediately. There is a long wait for medical procedures in wealthy countries while most medical tourism countries can arrange for immediate operations. Since life is precious and patients can’t wait, they prefer to travel to other countries for treatment.

The medical tourism business is now worth about $40 billion a year with almost 7 million people travelling globally in search of affordable medical care. India is renowned for alternative system of medicine such as Ayurveda, Unani and Siddha which has proven to be very useful and developed interest in patients around the world. Besides the cost of medical procedures, the attainment of rare drugs is also available at less cost in countries offering medical tourism.

The high levels of skill with advanced facilities and small treatment costs in the Indian hospitals have made it one of the leading destinations for Healthcare in the world. Tourists from American and European countries visit Asian countries for cardiac surgery, joint replacement surgery and knee replacement surgery in India. Individuals from African and West Asian countries undergo Heart surgery in India. The cost of heart surgery in India is just about 1/10th of that of USA and Britain. Their are hundreds of advanced cardiac hospitals in India and it has now become the heart treatment hub of South East Asia.

MIMS (Malabar Institute of Medical Sciences) thrived to become quality healthcare provider in Kerala, India. MIMS, located in the heart of Calicut city has been the leader in medical technology and it is sustained by internationally trained and qualified physicians, who manage the best offered medical services across all departments of medicine and surgery.

Although there is a long travel time involved in visiting India, it is among the most popular destinations for medical tourists. It undoubtedly has the lowest cost and highest quality of all healthcare facilities, where English is widely spoken. MIMS is the first multispecialty hospital in India to get NABH accreditation for its quality service and patient safety.  

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