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Home > Blog > 2008

Health tourism blog: 2008

The Health Tourism Blog is written by Keith Pollard, a regular speaker and commentator on medical tourism and the independent healthcare sector.  The Health Tourism Blog addresses some of the challenges and issues faced in the health tourism and medical travel sector, and provides suggestions on how both the industry and the individual participants can maximise the business opportunities that the marketplace presents.

  • What can Google tell us about medical tourism? googleWho knows what's going on in healthcare? Who knows what conditions and disorders are causing people problems? Who knows what's happening in medical tourism? Google! Google is a treasure chest of information about how people are behaving and what issues are concerning them. Google logs the online activity and search behaviour of hundreds of millions of users. It knows what you and I do on the web... 12/01/2009
  • Medical tourism: Survival of the fittest? Dec 1 2008No industry is immune from global recession, and that has to be the case for the growing medical tourism industry. In past recessions, businesses in the healthcare sector have perhaps suffered less than others; in a recession, people still get ill, and it's often difficult to delay expenditure on healthcare. But there are some indicators that medical tourism is begining to feel the pinch. 01/12/2008
  • How to run a medical tourism conference... Nov 13 2008Autumn is conference season, and it seems that medical tourism is becoming the most talked about subject on the conference platform. Three years ago, there was little interest in this area, but in 2008 it seems that every events company and association has jumped on the conference bandwagon. 13/11/2008
  • Medical tourism: The answer to the global healthcare problem? The staff of Clinica Fertia have international experience A recent article from McKinsey International highlights the magnitude of the challenge that leaders of governments in the developed countries are going to have to deal with sooner rather than later. The article looks at the increasing proportion of a country's wealth that is going to be dedicated to the health of its citizens in future years. 13/11/2008
  • Medical tourism ratings and reviews Oct 22 2008It's been a couple of months since we launched medical tourism ratings and reviews. It's met with a variable response from the medical tourism industry, and from the patients themselves. Medical tourism ratings and reviews at Treatment Abroad enables patients to provide feedback on their experience of travelling for treatment abroad. The Ratings and Reviews system is integral to our business... 22/10/2008
  • medicaltourism.com ......going, going gone? Aug 28 2008What's a domain name worth? Especially in the growth business of medical tourism. The Medical Tourism Association (of which my Company is a member) has recently announced that it is handling the sale of the domain name medicaltourism.com, on a commission basis. A reserve price of around $100,000 has been put on the sale. 28/08/2008
  • EU Directive on cross border healthcare boosts health tourism Dec 14 2007After a six month delay, the EU Proposal for a Directive on patient's rights in cross border healthcare has finally been released. It provides an added stimulus to the already growing number of medical tourists who seek hospital treatment elsewhere in the European Union. Its aim is to create a formal framework for cross border healthcare and remove the obstacles that patients face if they wish to... 02/07/2008
  • Helping patients make the right choice of medical tourism service Nov 20 2007More and more people are using online reviews to make decisions about the products and service that they buy. Consumers worldwide want to hear from people like me before they make a decision about which product or service to buy. TripAdvisor has become the first place that many people visit when they are planning a holiday or booking a hotel. 25/05/2008
  • McKinsey and the medical tourism numbers game... May 13 2008According to a new report on medical tourism from McKinsey (login required): "Between 60,000 and 85,000 people annually travel abroad for inpatient hospital care, a number.....far lower than commonly assumed". 13/05/2008
  • A code of practice for medical tourism Mar 11 2008At Treatment Abroad, we have introduced the first medical tourism code of practice for healthcare providers. The "Code of Practice for Medical Tourism" aims to encourage best practice in medical tourism through a commitment by healthcare providers overseas to a voluntary code of practice. 11/03/2008
  • Do concerns about MRSA and hospital infection drive patients abroad? Jan 31 2008Medical tourists who travel abroad for treatment, don't just do it to save money. In our soon to be published "Medical Tourism Survey", 56% of the respondents who went for elective surgery abroad said that worries about the risk of MRSA/hospital infection in NHS hospitals were a "Very Important" or "Quite Important" factor. 31/01/2008
  • EU Cross-border Healthcare Directive delayed Nov 26 2007According to EurActiv, an independent media portal dedicated to EU affairs, the EU Cross-border Healthcare Directive which intends to lift restrictions on patients travelling for treatment in other EU countries could be either redrafted, withdrawn or downgraded. 29/01/2008
  • High UK dental costs driving patients abroad Patients going abroad for dentistryA new study has been published which compares the cost of providing dental treatment in nine European countries. The UK has the highest costs of dental treatment. (Note: the study compared the cost of providing dental treatment, not the prices that are charged to patients). 10/01/2008
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About me

Keith Pollard

Keith Pollard

I am Managing Director of Intuition Communication Ltd, a web publishing business in the healthcare sector. Our sites include International Medical Travel Journal, Treatment Abroad, the medical tourism portal, DoctorInternet, the Arabic medical tourism portal and Private Healthcare UK, the UK's leading site for private healthcare services. I am a regular speaker and commentator on medical tourism and the independent healthcare sector.