SPEAKER FOCUS: GLOBAL HEALTHCARE

Steven J. Thompson, chief executive officer of Johns Hopkins Medicine International, will be a featured speaker at the Well-Being and Medical Travel Conference 2012, in Scottsdale, Ariz., June 20-21.

Among the topics Thompson will address in his presentation are: the affluence of those who typically travel internationally for medical procedures and the equity issues that raises; the positive role of “transnational healthcare” on global healthcare quality and accessibility, and the importance of promoting health care-related exchanges among countries.

Travel Market Report asked Thompson to give a preview of highlights in his presentation. “I plan to take a bit further a few of the themes of an OpEd piece of mine that ran in the Chicago Tribune,” he said in reply.

Following are excerpts from Thompson’s OpEd piece.

“Medical tourism has, to some extent, been defined by hype around the notion of affluent Americans traveling to other countries for surgical procedures at lower cost and, in many cases, without significant risk of worse outcomes.

“This form of medical tourism is essentially shopping internationally for the best deal.

“This form of medical tourism can clearly present economic benefits to a tiny percentage of the patient population and a handful of health care institutions. It does little to affect, one way or the other, the general availability, quality or cost of health care.

“Also, sometimes lumped into medical tourism is loosely the converse: overseas patients traveling to U.S. medical centers for the best care available. These patients, who also are typically affluent, seek leading specialists or access to expertise, equipment and facilities that aren't available in their own countries.

“It's tempting to dismiss these forms of medical tourism as in some way unseemly, given the questions of equity they raise.

“But resentment of medical tourism brings the risk of closing the door on a form of transnational health care that could have a large, positive effect on global quality, accessibility and safety. Less-developed countries and health care institutions that need to strengthen their own systems are increasingly turning to the U.S. for advice and assistance.

“Several U.S. academic medical centers, as well as commercial consulting firms, are working to create partnerships with governments, nongovernment organizations and commercial entities in other countries to improve health care, based on localized solutions. To that end, we need to encourage the broadest possible health care-related exchanges between countries.

“Even exchanging patients could help with the long-term goals of raising health care standards globally. When an influential segment of a population comes to the U.S. for treatment and receives top-notch care, those people may leave with a better idea of what needs to be done to improve care and engage in efforts to that end.

“And the skills and resources that hospitals and clinics in other countries sink into services that attract American medical tourists might help improve the pool of talent to treat the local population.”