Medical tourism in Ghana

What is medical tourism?

Medical tourism, or health tourism, occurs when patients travel to a foreign country in order to receive medical treatment.(2) This type of tourism is increasingly being referred to as ‘global healthcare’. ‘Medical tourism’ generally implies a packaged tour organised by an agent that specialises in arranging health-related travel, whilst ‘health tourism’ implies travel across borders in order to receive health rejuvenation. The latter term has also been used to imply wellness travel, such as visiting hot springs that emphasises spirituality or rejuvenation.(3) Medical tourism will be used for the purposes of this paper to refer to those seeking medical procedures either through an organised tour or individually.

Patients travel to another country in order to receive faster, cheaper or better medical services than they would receive in their home countries. This can include a wide array of procedures ranging from elective and preventative procedures to urgent care. The most popular elective medical procedures include joint replacements (hip and knee), cardiac surgery and cosmetic surgeries (liposuction, breast augmentation and facelifts).(4)

Medical tourism packages often offer a consultation, treatment (surgery), a physical therapist and personal assistant, and recovery in a spa.(5) Medical tourism therefore offers the patient a chance to receive medical treatment and recover in a vacation-like setting. Oftentimes patients recuperate at medical tourism hotels that resemble five-star hotels.(6) They can also opt to partake in tourism activities in the host country prior to departing from it.

When the medical tourism industry began to be established as its own industry, it was conceived as the movement of patients from the Global North to the Global South in search of faster and more affordable healthcare.(7) Medical tourism in Africa emerged as an industry in response to visitors from the Global North increasingly travelling to destinations such as India or Thailand to receive treatment. Visitors from countries such as Japan, the UK and the United States (US) were uninsured or underinsured. They could not afford the high medical costs in their own countries and were opting for cheaper locations. Many others from these countries wanted to have a procedure done without being wait-listed. Medical tourism therefore filled a niche need for these tourists. Countries in the Global South offered tourists from the Global North a profit-driven, low-cost alternative to receiving quality healthcare. 

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Medical Tourism in Philippines

The Philippines has been doing drastic efforts lately to boost its medical tourism services. Recently, the country launched a program detailing its plan to beef up medical services particularly in plastic surgery and to encourage tourists to visit the country.

Medical Tourism is one of the industries that helps the economy of our neighbor countries like India, Singapore and Thailand.

“And with how competent our local doctors in the country and how low our prices when it come to medical services , I think it’s one of the best time that we boost our efforts to promote the industry and make it among our offerings to invite tourists in the country

The Philippines as a Tourism Destination
When it comes to relaxing destinations, the Philippines is a paradise. Palawan, Boracay and Batanes are among the places that are plagued by tourists. We just need to equip these local destinations with convenient transportation and modern medical services.

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Medical Tourism in Taiwan

Taiwan is a small beautiful Asian country which has an important position on the global tourist map.  Every year thousands of tourists throng this country in search of adventure and to enjoy the beauty of nature. A travel to Taiwan will also help you to know about its rich culture, heritage, and traditions. Taiwan also attracts many health tourists on a yearly basis.

Affordable, world-class cosmetic surgery, plastic surgery, and cosmetic treatments such as liposuction, botox, tummy tucks, rhinoplasty, breast implants, and more are available at Taiwan's finest medical centers.

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Medical tourism in Malaysia

Medical tourism in Malaysia

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Medical Tourism in South Korea

Medical Tourism in South Korea

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Medical Tourism Thailand

Medical Tourism Thailand

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Medical Tourism New Zealand

Medical Tourism New Zealand

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Indians To Get Preference Over Foreigners: Transplants

Lakhs of foreigners thronging India every year seeking organ transplantation may find it difficult now. In an attempt to step up safeguards against misuse, the government has mandated that allocation of organs be made in a specified sequence giving preference to Indians over foreigners.

However, the medical fraternity has opposed the move alleging this will force doctors to differentiate between patients based on region and nationality, which is a violation of Medical Council of India (MCI) Act.

In a letter addressed to health secretary Lov Verma, Indian Medical Association (IMA) said, "Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Rules, 2014 are now been implemented and the rule 31 (4e) is a violation of MCI Act...the matter is a serious concern to the medical fraternity and needs immediate attention".

Recently, the Delhi government also issued an order to private hospitals asking them to obtain a no-objection certificate from at least two government hospitals with waiting lists-RP Centre (AIIMS) and Guru Nanak Eye Centre (MAMC)-before undertaking a transplant.

The move was triggered by aberrations found in cornea transplant. While the demand for cornea in India is very high, there are very few who manage to get it. Institutes like AIIMS usually have 500-600 waiting to get the tissue. Experts say, while inadequate donors is a major concern, often Indian patients in need do not get them in the absence of stringent law.

According to Organ Retrieval Banking Organization, a wing of AIIMS, over 1 lakh corneas are required every year, whereas only 25,000 are transplanted. Similarly, there is a need for 1-1.5 lakh kidneys per year but merely 3,500-4,000 transplants take place. For liver transplant, the need is 15,000 -20,000 every year but only around 500 take place.

However, doctors feel the organ allocation policy needs to be framed in a way that it doesn't discriminate between patients in need. Moreover, such a policy should ensure speedy procedure as organs may be wasted if not used within a specified time, says IMA secretary general Dr K K Aggarwal.

The government's move may also hurt various leading private hospitals who clock significant part of their international revenue from organ transplantation. With stricter norms and procedures, number of transplants in foreign patients may be impacted.

According to the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Rules, 2014, in the chain of priority list, foreign nationals come at the end only after exhausting needs of Indian patients.

India's medical tourism industry is pegged at around $3 billion and growing at 20% a year. Leading hospital chains like Apollo, Medanta, Max and Ganga Ram attract patients mostly from Africa, CIS countries, Gulf and Saarc nations, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Myanmar. According to officials from these hospitals, patients primarily come for organ transplants, oncology-related treatment and cardiac and orthopedic surgeries.



Resource: - http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Transplants-Indians-to-get-preference-over-foreigners/articleshow/46036907.cms

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Medical treatment not approved yet? No problem! Welcome to circumvention tourism

Medical tourism is the practice of seeking medical care across international borders. Countries with established medical sectors like the US, Europe, India and Thailand have been traditional destinations for international visitors seeking medical care. Even through costs are typically paid for out-of-pocket, some patients seek medical care overseas because it’s cheaper than in their home country.

But low costs aren’t the only draw. Now China, Russia and countries in the Caribbean are positioning themselves as destinations for another kind of medical visitor: the circumvention tourist. Increasingly people are traveling abroad for care that is unapproved by regulators in their home countries. In some cases, these so-called circumvention tourists may be seeking unproven and untested medical interventions.

But why would someone want to skirt domestic regulations aimed at protecting patient safety? Our research about medical tourism in the Bahamas offers some insights.
Access to new treatment options

The Bahamas offers Americans access to treatments that have been approved in other places, but not yet in the US. High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) treatment for prostate cancer, which has been approved in Canada and the EU but not the US, is one example. With something like HIFU, patients might think that the intervention is safe and effective because it has been approved elsewhere and that their domestic regulatory agency is acting too slowly to approve the treatment.

And going a step further, the Bahamas recently passed legislation that will ease the way for offering unproven stem cell interventions for a range of conditions including vascular disease, cancer, kidney disease and others. While some stem cell treatments have received regulatory approval elsewhere, others have not been demonstrated as safe and effective in clinical trials, let alone been approved for human use by any major Western regulator.

For instance, a Canadian fashion designer has announced plans to develop a stem cell clinic in the Bahamas that, he claims, will help “reverse the aging process.” In these cases, individuals are typically motivated by frustration with existing treatments and sufficiently desperate to seek unproven interventions for often life-threatening ailments.
Undermining medical decisions and research

Clearly, there are reasons to worry about circumvention tourism. It complicates informed decision-making, particularly in the case of life-saving treatments. Individuals may be desperate for a cure and vulnerable to engaging in decision-making that’s predicated on hope without a full understanding of the likelihood of success. By choosing to seek care on one’s own, circumvention tourism can also undermine patients’ relationships with their home physicians. This can make it more difficult for these medical professionals to provide guidance and advice for their patients.

The practice can also undermine the regulatory restrictions that protect patients from harm and fraud. Stem cell treatments, in particular, have been associated with fraudulent activities that have left people worse-off financially and even resulted in the loss of life. For example, a UK couple engaged in stem cell tourism in China in the hope of curing their son’s autism. However, they found the practices at the clinic dubious and the treatments on the verge of being abusive. The treatment cost them £20,000 (over US$30,000) and did not improve their son’s situation.

The loss of regulatory control threatens patient safety, and the safety of third parties who come into contact with these patients or serve as donors of tissue or reproductive service. The spread of the NDM-1 drug resistant enzyme (which can make bacteria resistant to many antibiotics), for example, has been linked to the travels of medical tourists.

And when patients go abroad for these interventions and opt out of clinical trials, it slows the process of research. For example, unregistered and unscientific cellular therapies draw clients who are willing to travel far distances and pay high fees for procedures that are unproven.

People are now traveling to Russia for unproven stem cell injections. Fraudulent stem cell therapies may jeopardize the legitimacy of real scientific trials, especially in the eyes of the public for whom the distinction could be hard to discern. Public support and funding for such research may be reduced across the entire field.

New options and better policies
But there can be advantages to circumvention tourism. In some circumstances it can create new options for medical personnel. In the case of the HIFU treatment, US-based doctors perform the treatment in the Bahamas in cooperation with local health workers. This allows them to gain new skills that will be useful when and if HIFU is approved locally. However, financial entanglements between these doctors and HIFU’s manufacturer have raised ethical concerns.

Patients can have access to a greater range of treatment options as well. And circumvention tourism can pressure regulators to reassess their policies. In the case of the FDA, other jurisdictions' faster regulatory approval for new interventions has contributed to public pressure to reform its approval processes.

Countries receiving circumvention tourists also benefit through economic diversification and less reliance on the volatile traditional tourism industry.

We found that the Bahamas will have a hard time competing with other Caribbean countries on cost for medical services, so the opportunity to offer specialist treatments like HIFU and stem cell injections gives the country the chance to compete for international patients.

What to do?
Circumvention tourism, whether to the Bahamas or other countries isn’t going stop. There’s a strong case for cooperation between regulators in both destination and source countries for patients seeking treatment abroad to avoid a regulatory race to the bottom. No one wants to see a contest between destination countries to offer the fewest restrictions on treatments in order to attract the largest number of patients.

The first step might be to emphasize the distinction between treatments like HIFU that have regulatory approval by well-established regulators elsewhere in the world and less reputable interventions that have not successfully passed any reputable regulatory scrutiny.


Resource:
https://theconversation.com/medical-treatment-not-approved-yet-no-problem-welcome-to-circumvention-tourism-35070

http://medical-tourism-magazine.blogspot.in/2014/07/india-doctors-surgens.html

http://medical-tourism-magazine.blogspot.in/p/blog-page.html

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The Jenny Craig Weight Loss Program

What It Is
Jenny Craig isn't a Janie-come-lately to the diet field. The program began in 1983 in Australia and started U.S. operations in 1985.

The Jenny Craig method is a three-level food-mind-body plan to help people lose weight and keep it off.

At the first level, the program teaches clients how to eat the foods they want -- in small, frequent portions.

At the second level, the program teaches clients how to increase their energy levels via simple activity.

At the third level, the program teaches clients how to build more balance into their lives in order to maintain weight loss and healthy diet.

The program offers several levels of support. Perhaps the most impressive of these is its 24/7 telephone line, allowing clients to get information and support when they need it. The program also offers online support, including peer-support discussion groups. A wide variety of written materials are also for sale.

There are two Jenny Craig programs. One is built around physical Jenny Craig centers. The company counts over 650 centers in the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Puerto Rico. For those who find it hard to get to a center, the at-home Jenny Direct program offers information by telephone and mail.

Advising Jenny Craig is a medical advisory board with certified professionals in medicine, psychology, and nutrition.

What You Can Eat on the Jenny Craig Diet

The keystone to the Jenny Craig diet is its prepackaged meals. For the most part, these are frozen breakfasts, lunches, dinners, and even desserts. Nutritionally, they contain 50% to 60% carbohydrate, 20% to 25% protein, and 20% to 25% fat.

Clients supplement these meals with fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and reduced-fat dairy products. In general, non-starchy vegetables are unlimited.

While these meals are what come to mind when most people think of Jenny Craig, they are not the be-all and end-all of the program. In fact, says Lisa Waltman, call center manager for Jenny Direct, the goal is eventually to wean clients from the prepared meals.

"For a certain period of time we support people with this prepackaged menu that serves as a model of healthy eating," Waltman tells WebMD. "As clients become more familiar with recognizing correct portion sizes, the counselors teach them how to cook at home and to eat out."

No food is taboo. The focus is on moderation, a balanced diet, and getting enough exercise. But built into the program are occasional splurges that allow dieters to indulge themselves a little.

"There is nothing you cannot have," Waltman says. "We educate what foods are high in fat and calories and should be used in moderation vs. foods that can be eaten more freely like non-starchy vegetables such as salad. And we teach about other foods, that of course you need to take in moderation when trying to lose weight and beyond. If you want cake, we want you to understand what you are doing if you have a piece -- not to deny you what you want."

That being said, the Jenny Craig method is calorie based. The menus a client develops with his or her counselor are based on an individual's weight, height, and goals.



Source: - www.medicinenet.com/jenny_craig/article.htm

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