Increase in tourism in vitro fertilization in Europe

In treatment abroad, we saw the growing interest of IVF clinics abroad who are experiencing significant growth in patient numbers between the United Kingdom and other European countries.

The latest report from the European society for human reproduction and Embryology confirms an increase in IVF treatment abroad, The clinical research report of infertility in Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Slovenia, Spain and Switzerland and is based on a sample of 1230 patients visiting these infertlity clinics. See the details of the report in the guardian.

Lack of access to services of in vitro fertilization in the country of origin for more than 40 and legal restrictions on infertility treatment are privileged drivers. The Italy was the largest source of IVF "tourists doctors", responsible for 32% of patients in the search. Next was the Germany (14%), followed by the Netherlands (12%), France (9%) and United Kingdom (5%). The median age was more 37 but British 63.5% of patients were more than 40.

According to the Coordinator of the study, Dr. Francoise Shenfield University College Hospital in London, "Spain and the Czech Republic are popular destinations for oocyte donation. Swedes travel to Denmark for insemination and French Belgium. " She also highlighted the significant numbers of Italians, travelling abroad to receive treatment that was rendered illegal in your country of origin under recent legislation or because they believe that they will receive higher quality care. Extrapolating data, EHSRE estimates 20000 25000 crossborder, fertility treatments are performed each year .IVF related medical tourism is a relatively new but growing trend in the United Kingdom, as delay couples have children in their 40 's and then discover that they have a problem.

IVF Treatment is available in the national health service in the United Kingdom, but access to treatment can be a problem.

Age and waiting lists can be a barrier to treatment. Obese women are excluded from NHS treatment. Demand for egg donation exceeds the supply. (The right donor eggs anononymity was removed in 2005)

Obviously, private IVF treatment is available in the United Kingdom, but this can be expensive and apply the same legal restrictions.

Whereas some areas of medical tourism may be feeling the effects of the recession and the resulting impact on people's pocket, the IVF treatment abroad is an opportunity worth pursuing for IVF clinics abroad who can demonstrate impressive results and meet the needs of the tourist "fertility".

How to perform a medical tourism Conference ...

The Autumn is the season of Conference, and it seems that medical tourism is becoming the most talked about it in the Conference platform. Three years ago, there was little interest in this area, but in 2008, it seems that every company events and Association jumped on the bandwagon Conference.

In recent weeks, I watched the World Congress of health tourism in San Francisco, the Conference of health tourism development in Vienna, the health tourism show in London, the global health Conference in Dubai and spoken on medical tourism for a UK NHS management meeting and Convention Healthcare Cerner in Kansas. My colleague Philip Archbold spoke during the Indian medical tourism Congress in Chennai. Coming ...I'm approaching international travel Conference in Korea and speak at a meeting of the Council of health promotion Cyprus.

Then I became a bit of a "medical tourism Conference groupie ....

But he asks the question: do we need all these events, and they are really worth?

In my previous company, one of the main activities was event planning and management. many of these events were within the health sector. So I have some knowledge about what makes a good event and what can go wrong. Being an attendee/speaker/delegated these events medical tourism has been an eye opener. Frankly, compared to other industries most of them aren't delivering goods.

Where he's wrong?

Here are my top ten recommendations for event organizers: medical tourism

1. set some goals. ...

Most medical tourism events I've attended seems to have some sort of vague objective of "Let's make a lot of people together to" solve some problems "and facilitate some networks (and we'll make a lot of money, while we do it. ..).

2 ...., and measure your success!

If you do not have SMART objectives, you can't measure its success. Sending a postback event search "what do you think of the Conference?" is the usual cop out this respeitomas what's really measure? Most medical tourism conferences don't even bother with this most basic measuring tools.

3. plan the schedule

The current approach seems to be mainly in the sense of "we get the word out". Why not plan a schedule and then identify who would be best to cover specific topics? Let's have some speakers from outside the medical tourism fraternity that can give a different perspective!

4. buy professional specialization

If events are not its expertise central, buy some expert help. Get a professional organizer of events to plan, sell and run the Conference, the medical tourism Association did a great job to get numbers for the San Francisco Congress, but in terms of structure, content and organization.

5. abolish the all-day session

Different people have different information needs. The medical tourism industry is a cauldron of suppliers, buyers, facilitators, insurance companies, etc. Run sessions that address key issues for targeted groups of delegates or specific workshops, minors. Start the day with a lively, thought-provoking keynote presentation then breaks the audience into smaller sessions. The Convention Healthcare Cerner has cracked this one. A lecture by encouraging every day followed by 300 more targeted workshops for 5000 more participants.

6. Fire some speakers

I saw good, bad and just plain horrible this year. My biggest complaint? Speakers who gave a clear and very specific brief ... and then ignore it completely, often doing a presentation "this is what we do in XXXX we wonderful". All speakers are guilty of promoting their own interests and business. That's part of why they are there and what should be expected. But he shouldn't make until 100% of your presentation. If you want me names, I'll send email
them for you ....

7. prohibit the presentation of "target"

The platform of the Conference is not the place to run a 30 minute "propaganda" .... "my country/destination/hospital/company has the" highest quality healthcare "," State of the art technology "etc etc

8. organising

If you're going to try to perform some structured networks or sessions of "buyer meets seller", plan it correctly, make sure the right people and run it as a clock. Take a look at other industries and see how they do it.

9. maintain time

If there's one thing you should do a Conference, especially when it is based on parallel sessions runs on time. If speakers to long-term, turn off the microphone. Dubai could learn a thing or two here.

10. make it fun!

Cheer you! We are human beings. We're out of our regular work for a few days. We enjoy ourselves. Someone please do something different ....!

Finally, a medical tourism Conference not to miss in 2009. the II European Congress on health tourism in Budapest. Why? Under the guidance of a tourism specialist, Dr Uwe Klein, maybe this one will hit the mark?

The smoke and mirrors of medical tourism

When is a facilitator of medical tourism a medical travel agent?
According to our research medical tourism in 2008, about one third of the United Kingdom medical tourists make arrangements through a facilitator of medical tourism. In some countries, such facilitators represent a greater portion of the market and its influence is growing. The concern of many is the uncontrolled growth of the sector and the lack of regulation within it.

Let's say I want to start a business facilitation of medical tourism. It's easy?

What do I need?

I need a name. I'll call my business "Magical Medical travel". I need a phone. I have one of those. I need an Internet connection. I have one of those. I need a Web site to generate some patients. I can create something that will do the work, using a cheap as 1 & 1 Web hosting. I need some hospitals and clinics abroad who are willing to pay me a Commission if I send patients to them. I am sure that I can find some of them. I think I need to find someone in the country of destination that can take care of patients while they are there. ... and maybe some documents that I can get the patient to sign. Oh, and it might be a good idea to invent some testimonies of patients ... You must be a qualified doctor? Well, I am known as Dr Pollard on various internet forums, and got some drpollard @ email addresses, so that should be fine. Cash flow. Well, if I take patients ' money up front and then pay final treatment providers, which is not a problem. I'll buy some advertising online and let him some months before paying the Bill. I'll pay a few hundred pounds to join one of travel medicine associations; that will give me some credibility.

It is very easy really? And that's how has emerged some medical tourism facilitators (not all!). Medical tourism is a very fragmented market and there is a very wide range of facilitators in the business.

Which brings me back to the title of this blog: "When is a facilitator of medical tourism travel agent a doctor?"

In the United Kingdom and in Europe, which is really quite an important issue. Let's expand the question ...

"What is the difference between a medical tourism facilitator who sells a package of travel, accommodation and treatment of a consumer and a regular travel agent who sells an consumers a suite of accommodation, travel and activities related holidays?".

In the United Kingdom, activities of travel agencies are highly regulated. For example, "package travel, package holidays and package Tours regulations" were introduced to protect consumers against unscrupulous travel agents. A package is defined as "pre-arranged combination of at least two of the following components-transport, accommodation and other tourist services".

Thus, it is a facilitator of medical tourism a travel agent? Some would say ... Yes!

And if so, come from package travel regulations and my new business facilitation, Magical Travels doctor may have some problems. This means that my company will be monitored:

What can I say in my site or brochure. The nature of any contracts that I do. The information that you provide to the consumer. Price changes. Safety in case of insolvency. IE. You must be connected.

Regarding the latter, when someone books a holiday in the United Kingdom, many will look to see if the ABTA travel company (Association of British Travel Agents) adherent. This means that the company put a link to an institution authorised on the basis of its turnover. The minimum is £ 20.000 loop.

Even if you pay the connection, you cannot join ABTA, unless you comply with the code of conduct and random inspection.

Let's compare this with the business of travel medicine, an industry that was once described last year by Avery Comarow, as "the Wild West of Medical Care Abroad".

Anyone can set up as a travel agent/facilitator of doctor. There is no regulation. There is no compulsory code of conduct. Anyone can join one of the associations as MTA or TAG E RAG. There is no necessary link.

So that the industry was do to fix the problem?

In the perfect world, we need an ABTA travel medical world-adequately perform a true representative of the Board, that responds to their accession, which publishes an annual report and financial statements, which only accepts Members that meet clearly defined criteria, which inspects Member facilities at random and which requires all members to bring a significant title for the protection of medical travellers.

Likely?

I doubt it.

What is more likely ...

Grows the medical travel, especially on a background of Government controlled by initiatives such as the European directive on Cross Border Healthcare, Governments will begin to regulate medical travel facilitators and agents. Bodies like the ABTA in United Kingdom and similar organizations in other countries likely to favor and support this.

"What makes a medical travel agent any different and exempt from the Regulation of?", they say.

Predict future demand of medical tourism

The latest data on hospital activity in the UK National Health Service provide a useful indicator of where future demand of medical tourism can lie. One of the advantages of the system of public health of the United Kingdom is that with a provider .... the NHS and a paying .... the NHS means that can be captured a massive amount of meaningful data on the State of health of the country, on the demand for health services and on how is changing the profile of population health

How many countries developed with health systems established, the United Kingdom faces the challenge of meeting the needs of an ageing population at a time when there is enormous pressure to reduce or put a hold on public spending and indeed reduce expenditure on health services. All UK hospitals collect data in the same way (well, almost ...) and the data are collected centrally by the NHS.

The following data are drawn from the recent report "Hospital Episode statistics: admitted Patient Care – England 2009/10", published by the NHS information centre.

Take a look at how the demand for NHS hospital services has changed over the past ten years. First let's look at the age profile of patients admitted to hospitals from UK:

In 2009/10 were:

stays in hospital 16,806, 200, an increase of 38 percent in 1999/2000. 1,939 .190 stays for patients aged 0 to 14. an increase of 15 per cent in 1999/2000. 7,333 Mameli 47 stays for patients aged 55 to 59. an increase of 29 percent in 1999/2000. 3,642,940 stays for patients aged 60 to 74. an increase of 48 percent in 1999/2000. 3,837,990 is for patients aged 75 and more, an increase of 66 percent in 1999/2000.

We are living longer, and we're put incredible pressure on hospital services. The average age of the patients has increased from 46 to 51. Fortunately for the NHS, 38% increase in patient numbers was to some extent offset by efficiency – average duration of hospital stay fell 28 percent of 19. 8 days for 5. 6 days.

If you are targeting countries to medical tourism companies, you need to understand the health problems that affect the country's population and more than stretching their health services now or in the future.

In the United Kingdom during the past ten years:

Admissions for diseases of the musculoskeletal system and connective tissue (including conditions such as arthritis, joint and back problems) have grown more rapidly than any other group of Diagnostics; at 82 percent (from 618.660 admissions in 1999/2000 and 1,126,010 in 2009/10). The number of hospitalizations due to obesity increased in 972 percent! The number of admissions entirely because of alcohol increased by 54 per cent.

So. .. .. If you're in the business of medical tourism and you are targeting the United Kingdom or other Western markets and developed, and you're working on your plan five years ....

.... give some thought to where the future demand for medical tourism is likely to come and tailor your offer as a result of service.

If you want to read in detail the report, you can view a full version of the report here.

Choice of patients in medical tourism ...Let's listen to the voice of the patient.

Error in deserializing body of reply message for operation ' Translate '. The maximum string content length quota (8192) has been exceeded while reading XML data. This percentage may be increased by changing the MaxStringContentLength property on the XmlDictionaryReaderQuotas object used when creating the XML reader. Line 1, position 9054.

The recent Medical Tourism Climate Survey conducted by IMTJ for the European Medical Travel Conference 2010 provided an interesting insight into the current state of the industry and how people in the industry are thinking about medical tourism. The survey analyzed the views of over 250 people involved in medical tourism from 55 countries. One particular question that drew my attention was one that asked people in the industry about the factors that influence patient choice. The question was this:

"What factors do you think are important to medical tourists when they choose a healthcare facility or treatment provider abroad?"

Expertise and qualifications of the doctor/dentist ranked first. Comments and ratings by other patients ranked second.

It's the high ranking of "patient opinion" that surprised me, given the industry's apparent Roosevelt to "buy in" to the concept of patient ratings and reviews. Hospitals worldwide are investing large sums of money in accreditation and quality standards, sometimes as a marketing tool to attract patients and referrers. But very few patients have any idea what JCI accreditation means, or how this can help them to compare quality at different hospitals.

So, how are patients comparing competing destinations and healthcare providers?

The patients evolve into healthcare consumers, they are considering the purchase of healthcare in much the same way that they consider the purchase of any consumer good or service. And medical tourists are no different.

Let's consider the tourism or travel element of medical tourism and medical travel. When consumers are booking a holiday or a hotel, what do they do and where do they go to gather information that will guide their choice. To determine price and availability they visit travel and holiday portals online. Sites such as lastminute.com and Expedia attract massive volumes of traffic. And where do these consumers go to gather "opinion" about quality and services at their destination or hotel. Travel consumers want to hear from "people like me" before they buy .... which is why TripAdvisor has become one of the busiest web sites in the travel sector.

So, what are the options for medical tourists who want to hear from "people like me" before they buy? Many patients whether they are travelling patients or "stay at home" patients make extensive use of patient forums before they make a decision on treatment at home or abroad. Infertility treatment abroad is a good example. Take a look at the Fertility Treatment Abroad section of the FertilityZone web site, and some of the discussions that take place around the services provided by various IVF and infertility clinics abroad:

If you were a patient seeking infertility treatment abroad what would influence your decision more ...

The accreditation status of the clinic? The qualifications of the doctor?

I'm willing to bet that the views of other patients .... "consumer opinion" would be the major influence on your decision. (Obviously, for IVF treatment, patients would also be looking at outcome date/fertilisation rates published by the clinic). This seems to be the conclusion reached by the respondents in the IMTJ Medical Tourism Climate Survey.

So. .. why hasnt the medical tourism sector bought into patient ratings and reviews?

At Treatment Abroad, we were the first to enable medical tourists to rate and review overseas hospitals and clinics. At Medical Tourism Ratings and Reviews, patients can score these clinics and post their comments about the service and treatment received. To enable this, we invest heavily in Bazaarvoice, the world leaders in online rating systems to manage our new service. They make sure that only valid reviews make it on to our medical tourism reviews site. The moderators are well educated, trained and tested to ensure only appropriate user-generated content gets posted. Nevertheless, we are disappointed in the adoption of this reviews system by our clients.

When we promote the reviews system direct to patients and people who have enquired about treatment abroad, we get excellent take up. Patients are keen to share their experiences and benefit from other patients ' experiences. Similarly, some of our clients see the benefit of allowing patients to rate and review their services and actively encourage their past patients to visit the site and post a review. The system is free. It doesn't cost the client a penny extra to participate. But many of our clients are less enthusiastic about patient reviews.

Why is there Roosevelt to encourage patient reviews for medical tourism?

The most common objection from clients is that they are worried about negative reviews. What happens if the patient actually says something that they don't like?

Well, all of the hotels and holiday providers on Trip Adviser know, a negative review may affect their business negatively. Or will it?

On Medical Tourism Ratings and Reviews, we publish negative patient reviews, as long as they are not profane or violate other rules of moderation, such as raising litigation or malpractice issues.

Negative reviews are valuable patient

Negative reviews are of value to the healthcare provider and to healthcare consumers. Negative reviews show credibility – if there are nothing but 5-star reviews for your services, healthcare consumers get suspicious about the authenticity of the content.

Negative reviews also give objective feedback and help healthcare providers uncover blind spots. Perhaps there was a breakdown in the process or poor communication with the patient, or some misinformation in the description of your services on your website. Direct feedback from your patients is the most transparent way to uncover these issues and get them solved quickly.

When we publish a negative review on Medical Tourism Ratings and Reviews, we give the client the chance to respond – to explain what went wrong and to say what they are doing to put things right. Negative reviews which we reject and do not publish (but we do pass to clients) are also incredibly valuable. When patients are upset with your service or their treatment, they sometimes get angry, which can cause them to violate the terms of our review, use profanity, threaten legal action or go off on a tangent – all things that can lead us to reject the review.

Don't ignore negative patient reviews

It's important for healthcare providers not to ignore this information, because if you can uncover and solve a legitimate problem, and complete the circle, it makes it less likely that the patient will spread their rancour to blogs, forums, and other places where you are unable to see, control or address their comments .it's important for healthcare providers to review all negative content, so they can uncover service or system improvements to improve future patient interactions.

The message ... It's time for medical tourism providers to start actively encouraging patients to rate and review their services and to start listening to what patients have to say. Accept that sometimes things go wrong, that patients will be unhappy and will want to tell the world.

You may learn more from getting something wrong than you do from getting something right.

Medical tourism ratings and reviews

Has been a couple of months since we launched the desk doctor ratings and reviews. He met with a response variable medical tourism industry and patients themselves.

Medical tourism ratings and reviews on treatment abroad allows patients to provide feedback about your experience of traveling for treatment abroad. The ratings system and opinions is an integral part of our business philosophy of "helping patients make the right choice." It runs through Bazaarvoice, world leading U.S. based on reviews of systems that operate similar systems for companies such as Dell, Sears, Argos and many others.

When a patient presents a review of an agency of medical tourism, a hospital or a clinic, the revision is marked by the team of reviews to ensure that:

The review is valid comment, honest and fair. There is a spurious revision that has been "invented" by a health care provider to promote its facilities or damage the reputation of a competitor. The review does not contain profanity or inappropriate content. The revision does not raise issues of legal liability.

Health care providers and agencies are the opportunity to answer any negative comments.

So. .. What do providers think ratings and reviews of health care?
Is interesting…. medical tourism agencies and health care providers that are "marketing oriented" adopted the approach with enthusiasm. See it as a highly attractive way of generating "word of mouth ' recommendation of its services and do not cost a dime.

Companies like beautiful tours in South Africa and Europe vital in Hungary are actively encouraging your patients to review their services:

Others are less enthusastic .... and I don't know why! Is because they are afraid of patients posting negative comments about your experience? Is because they simply are not connected to the power of "word of mouth" and how consumers whiuch are using the Web to influence the purchase of products and services?

The experience of other sectors shows that:

63% of consumers are more likely to purchase a vendor, if you have ratings and reviews. 77% of online shoppers use reviews and ratings when buying. 82% of people who read reviews said that their purchasing decisions have been directly influenced by those reviews.

Asking people to register their medical tourism experiences should encourage more patients to travel for treatment abroad. And medical tourism, ratings and reviews should help health care providers to tune the "voice of the patient".

So. .. what patients think that?
They love! Feedback about your experiences of medical tourism is overwhelmingly positive, and it's helping to reassure other patients who are considering traveling doctors. Patients are health consumers; typical consumer behavior and is beginning to influence the way they buy health care. If can rate and review your hotel or vacation experience at TripAdvisor .... why not do the same for the medical course?

NHS Patient Choice-lessons for medical tourism

In the United Kingdom, "patient choice" is one of the driving forces in the area of health. Since April 2008, choice of patients was extended in the United Kingdom. Patients can choose which are treated in hospital .... anywhere in the country. Patients can choose the time of his appointment of hospital. In some cases, patients can choose individual consultant who see. The NHS Choices website lists information about all NHS hospitals, such as its MRSA rates, facilities and ratings and feedback by patients means that patients can make an informed choice.

The NHS Choose and Book site allows people to make their choices.
In reality, the initiative of choice for patients was a bit of a disappointment. One problem is that there are actually aware patients that they have a choice. The report of the national patient Choice survey, England-December 2008 examined patient acceptance of choice so far.

The main conclusions:

The percentage of patients, remembering to be offered a choice of hospital for your first outpatient appointment was 46% in December 2008, the same as in September, but above 30% in the first search (May/June 2006) 50% of patients were aware before they visited your GP that they had a choice of hospitals for your first appointment, up 48% in September and 29% in May/June 2006 survey.

The factors influencing the choice

Hospital Cleaning and low infection rates were given in most cases (in 74% of patients) as an important factor in choosing a hospital. The other five are the quality of care (given by 64% of patients), waiting periods (63%), the friendliness of the staff (57%), the reputation of the Hospital (55%) and location or transport considerations (54%).

So what medical tourism companies learn from this?

If UK patients may compare Hospitals NHS MRSA rates, rates of infection post operative and results, because they can't make it to hospitals abroad? Or maybe, because it is difficult if not impossible, to find a hospital medical treatment of tourists who publishs such data or make available for free on your site?

Many people in the United Kingdom are entitled under EU law to travel abroad for treatment. The EU directive establishes a framework around this. but the fundamental right of free movement already exists. So why aren't people taking advantage of this?

They don't know that they are entitled. They do not "rely" hospitals abroad. They would prefer to wait for treatment on the NHS in your local area.

Awareness of the options of treatment abroad can be generated by the providers themselves. One of the best tools to consider is the use of the stories of patients to create local press coverage and thereby raise awareness. See this story on Scottish. Let's see more of them!