The IMTJ Special Report on medical tourism in San Serriffe published on April 1st
certainly made an impact in the medical travel world, receiving extensive
coverage and attracting applications from potential business partners, consultants and advisors!
The report detailed a $2 billion project to develop a "medical city" on the Indian
Ocean island of San Serriffe. The publication date of the report (April
1st) was of course a clue, as was the name of the spokesperson from
the medical tourism web
publisher, Institution (Loof Lirpa….. April Fool).
Those who have been around
the publishing world a while will be familiar with the island of San Serriffe.
Invented by the Guardian Newspaper in 1977, the mythical island is the most
successful and most famous April Fool in publishing. San Serriffe has received
repeated coverage every April 1st on various aspects of the island’s
economy, geography and politics. (See Wikipedia article on San Serriffe). IMTJ decided it was time that San Serriffe
should enter the world of medical tourism
But… on a
serious note, what can we learn about the industry from the San Serriffe
Special Report?
Don’t believe what you
read about medical tourism...
The medical
tourism industry is plagued by distorted statistics, mistruths, and pure
invention. The medical tourism gold rush has attracted consultants, pundits,
investors and a raft of healthcare facilities and medical tourism facilitators
who believe what they read on the web and hear at conferences.
Take care….
As we can see with the San Serriffe myth, all that glisters may not be
gold. Here are some of the statistics on the release of the IMTJ Special Report
on San Serriffe.
- At midnight on April 1st, IMTJ issued a
press release on the Special Report.
- The press release, despite being pure
invention, made it through the vetting process for PRWeb. (PR.com blocked the
release.)
- The release was delivered to 5,871 media outlets.
- It generated 12,610 News Feed Impressions.
- It was republished on 3,820 web pages!
So, a completely fictitious article about medical tourism
has now achieved the stamp of web credibility. We look forward to the first
mention of San Serriffe Medical City at a medical tourism conference!
There’s plenty of people
after your money…
Did it fool
anyone? Yes! Quite a few people, in fact. It goes to show that however
ridiculous a concept may be, in the medical tourism world there will always be
some people around who are prepared to consider it …. and are interested in
making some money out of it.
Thanks to those who contributed to the spirit of our April
Fool. We will not name them for fear of embarrassing them.. But here’s a flavour of those who are interested
in helping San Serriffe to make its millions from medical tourism:
- A Minnesota consultant who is happy to relocate
to San Serriffe.
- An online publisher, keen to explore a
relationship.
- A Chinese investment company.
- A stem cell company seeking new locations for
facilities.
- An international healthcare consultant with
experience in Dubai and Saudi Arabia
- Another healthcare consultant with experience in
medical tourism in the Gulf Region.
- Another healthcare consultant with experience in
medical tourism in the Far East.
- Another healthcare consultant with experience in
medical tourism in Germany.
- A medical tourism facilitator keen to promote
the destination
- Several conference organisers keen to attract
sponsorship from San Serriffe.
- And a few more!
You have been warned...
Keep an eye out for what you read in the press and the media
on April 1st.
On April 1st 2012, did you really believe
that:
Date published: 10 April 2012
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