Health Care Blog

Medical tourism is the latest buzzword in the world of tourism and travel industry. The term defines the practice of traveling across international border in order to avail health care. It includes a wide range of treatment like joint replacement, renal transplantation, cardiac surgery, plastic and cosmetic surgeries. Also the leisure aspects associated with travel and tour may be included here.

The term Medical Tourism dates back to the ancient Greece when the pilgrims used to come to Epiduria, a small territory in the Saronic Gulf to obtain medical and dental assistance. Thus Epiduria had become the center for medical tourism. The early form of medical tourism took place in the form of spa towns and sanitariums.

In India, medical tourism is a developing term. People from all over the world come to India for various medical and dental treatment. Popular medical services include joint replacement surgery, cosmetic surgery, heart surgery and dental treatment. Better infrastructure, technology and low cost are some of the factors that made India a preferred health destination among the people from USA, UK, Japan and various parts of Europe.

The medical tourism market in India is expected to grow to $2 billion a year by 2012-13. One probable reason for this rapid growth is the treatment cost. Treatment in India costs almost one tenth of what it takes in USA or UK. Then comes the significance of time. People come to India to avail treatment as they are frustrated with the time involved in the treatment process. On the other hand, people from poorer countries like Bangladesh and Pakistan come to India for lack of proper treatment in their own countries. Language is another factor as India is the country of a good number of English speaking doctors.

So far, South India is the preferred location. This part of India is the health capital of the country. In their quest to attract foreign patients, hospitals are opening up a wide of facilities like foreign cell for each country among the others. Hopefully, by the next few years, India will be the preferred location worldwide for good medical facility.

Source: http://www.indiamedicaltourism.net/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_tourism

Filed under Health, Heart, Kidney

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 20th, 2008 at 7:32 pm and is filed under Health, Heart, Kidney. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.