The medical travel journey is complex and could be overwhelming for a medical tourist visiting a country for the first time. Patient advocates play an integral role in ensuring a seamless medical travel continuum by guiding medical tourists through the care journey and ensuring the receive the best care they can get. As patients become more intentional about their medical travel choices, patient advocacy is becoming a crucial point in medical travel, and one that has become a key differentiator in a highly competitive industry.
The medical tourism market is rapidly expanding, many regions across the world are boosting their healthcare systems to meet a wider range of healthcare needs and also provide first-rate care for medical tourists. Following the massive development of free trade zones and healthcare systems across the Middle East, Gulf Corporation Council (GCC) countries, and North Africa, the medical tourism market in these regions have been expanding rapidly.
The Certified Medical Travel Professional (CMTP) is your key to leaping forward and gaining new heights in the medical tourism industry. Developed by the Global Healthcare Accreditation, this medical tourism training helps medical providers and other medical tourism stakeholders to focus on the core levers of medical travel, including patient experience, effective marketing, and building the right business models.
With the Certified Medical Travel Professional program, become a highly valuable and recognized expert in the industry, providing relevant and exceptional solutions for medical tourists at each touchpoint of the medical travel patient care journey. To register for the CMTP certification, click here.
Over the last few decades, the need for affordable and top-line healthcare continues to drive medical travel as more health buyers look beyond borders to find solutions for their healthcare needs. While medical travel offers a unique opportunity for health payers to access high-quality healthcare with enormous cost savings, it also comes with some risks – both to the patient and the healthcare provider.
Patient experience is essential for every point of the care continuum, from departure to discharge; patients want a seamless medical journey as well as quality medical treatment and a relaxing post-treatment recovery period. Meeting patients at these touch points is a key to unlocking success in the medical tourism industry. GHA has a team of global experts and healthcare leaders to redirect organizations and businesses to meet patients’ needs effectively.
Patient care outcomes are heavily dependent on clear communication between health providers and patients. Accurate disease diagnosis depends on a clear and precise history taking, and treatment compliance is also strongly hinged on clear treatment instructions and follow-up details. Essentially, it is crucial to have a clear flow of information between health providers and clients; however, this may fall short of what’s expected and health providers may make certain mistakes in communication that could potentially affect healthcare outcomes.
Marketing is a crucial component of business growth, and if not implemented correctly, could mar organizational success. Medical tourism programs need to pay attention to the nuances of the medical travel market, and implement strategies to attract their target populations and drive more buy-ins.
The medical tourism industry is beginning to set a new path of recovery since the pandemic ceased. The major players are re-strategizing and previously small players are emerging as key stakeholders in the industry. In this webinar, Bill Cook and Jonathan Edelheit discuss the principles of success in the industry and strategies that are pivotal to long-term success.
Korea is reshaping the dynamics of the industry as advances in the country's healthcare system are attracting millions of medical tourists from around the world. With strategic partnerships and business models, these hospitals are redefining care standards and the patient experience.
Korean Tourism Organization and the Medical Tourism Association had a recent roundtable led by Jonathan Edelheit, Chairman and Co-founder of Global Healthcare Resources and President of Medical Tourism Association, in which more than 25 US medical travel stakeholders, insurance companies, employers, and insurance agents along with some leading Korean hospitals discuss the paradigm shifts in healthcare in the U.S. and the drive for medical travel toward outstanding medical travel destinations, particularly Korea
Medical travel facilitator companies play a critical role in ensuring a safe and successful medical travel patient experience. There are many great facilitator companies out there; however, unfortunately, patients have very few signposts to help them distinguish between a good facilitator and the not so good.
With more destinations competing for international patients around the world, Singapore is taking a unique position that focuses on driving quality healthcare through international best practices at reasonable costs to payers.
VitalLife, a subsidiary of Bumrungrad International Hospital in Thailand, offers an array of treatments that cut across pharmacologic treatments and wellness strategies to prevent and reverse chronic diseases. VitalLife offers a range of treatments that cut across personalized medicine and individualized lifestyle and behavioral changes.
As the world becomes smaller and people from different cultural backgrounds connect and transact, there Is a need for medical providers and medical travel businesses to recognize the cultural lines that distinguish people and ensure they remodel their operations to accommodate these differences and boost their patient experience, thereby.
The Future of Medical Tourism, arguably the most successful and well-attended webinar organized by the Medical Tourism Association, with over 600 registered industry stakeholders from across the globe, featured insightful takes and discussions about the future of medical travel, the paradigm shifts disrupting the industry, and the challenges that lie ahead.
South Korea is in the spotlight, as many American health payers are paying attention to Korea’s advances in medicine and robust medical travel opportunities. South Korea has been a leading player in the medical tourism industry over the last decade, with more than 400,000 foreign patients yearly visiting the country for medical treatment. As health payers seeking alternatives to expensive U.S. healthcare began to think outside the box for opportunities beyond the border, they began to uncover the goldmine that is Korea’s medical system.
The dynamics of medical travel have changed since the pandemic eased. With evolving patient demands, medical travel businesses and programs are transforming their models to adapt to the changing business climate and meet these new demands. One important area that is often overlooked is staff training.
Marketing is a critical component of most businesses; whether or not your organization offers high-quality products or services, your client volume and overall success depend, in a large measure, on the quality and effectiveness of your marketing strategies. The pattern is similar in medical travel. With shifting paradigms in patient expectations and choices for medical travel destinations, medical tourism and health tourism organizations need to rethink strategies to enhance their brands and visibility and improve how they communicate their offerings
Telemedicine no doubt has become a catalyst for improved patient outcomes and healthcare cost savings, but there are still factors that preclude its optimal use by patients. Healthcare providers and tech vendors need to understand how medical travel patients want digitalized patient care delivered to create models they can easily engage with. With these barriers addressed, telemedicine can reach its potential as a lever for achieving equitable distribution of healthcare resources and, in turn, a better healthcare experience.
