The Medical
Tourism Market is defined by patients travelling abroad to seek
surgical or medical assistance for quality treatment available overseas. The
market is at a growth stage and is expected to grow further over the forecast
period buoyed by factors such as quality of healthcare offered at optimal cost,
expert healthcare practitioners, and customized approach in providing
end-to-end services including support in obtaining a medical visa to arranging
patients’ stay.
In addition, prevailing cost of medical
services in patients’ home-country, availability of advanced healthcare
treatment facility, and legal restrictions on a few medical practices such as
fertility processes in home country are adding to the growth of medical tourism
market. In addition, increase in campaign and marketing of medical facilities
to endorse medical tourism and presence of international health insurance is
expected to boost the market over the forecast period. Presence of cashless
facility and wide number of hospital under insurance coverage are also expected
to provide opportunities for market growth.
Medical
tourism and international accreditation continue to play a vital role in
patient inflow into destination countries boosting medical tourism. The number
of accredited facilities is rising year-on-year giving international exposure
to hospitals, indirectly linking medical tourism successfully.
Improving
healthcare infrastructure, presence of favorable government policies, and
presence of quality healthcare service at lower price is propelling the market
in the Asia Pacific region. Among the various countries in Asia Pacific, India
is increasingly becoming a medical tourism hub as the country offers cost
advantage, has quality hospitals and skilled doctors, and favorable medical
visa policies. For instance, India’s e-medical visa facility permits three
medical visits to patients in the country. The country also offers medical visa
for follow up treatment. Dental tourism and cosmetic surgeries are among the
leading sectors for medical tourism in India. Major inflow of patients in India
are from countries such as UAE, Middle East, Africa, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka,
Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Kuwait, and Mauritius. Besides India, Thailand secures
prime spot in medical tourism market. Malaysia is another prominent destination
amongst medically sophisticated infrastructure led nations. Economically
affordable treatments lay the road for Malaysia to be one of the most
forward-looking nations in medical tourism market.
Technology
leverage to bring in innovation in healthcare has also added to the growth of
the market. Technology usage including cloud computing and web 2.0 has spurred
growth in the market. Cloud computing is largely being leveraged for keeping
and sharing electronic medical records. Leveraging cloud computing, electronic
medical record (EMR) can be made available universally to healthcare service
providers. All healthcare tourism service providers and healthcare
practitioners can access the same medical record on a real-time basis. Besides
bringing efficiency in the process, EMR decreases extra diagnosis and
medication errors and brings efficacy in healthcare systems.
Some of the
popular hospital chains active in the market include Apollo Hospitals, Asian
Heart Institute and Research Centre, Fortis Healthcare, Aditya Birla Memorial
Hospital, NTT Medical Center Tokyo, KPJ Healthcare Berhad, Seoul National
University Hospital, Raffles Medical Group, Prince Court Medical Centre,
Barbados Fertility Centre, Bangkok Hospital Medical Center, Min-Sheng General
Hospital are the leading healthcare tourism provider.