Medical Travel Book Covers Key Challenges

A lack of reliable information and the need for credible medical facilitators are among top challenges in medical and health travel, according to medical travel executives.

The newly released Medical Tourism Guidebook/Health Tourism Guidebook aims to address these and other issues that were identified in a survey of medical travel executives last year.

The new book, useful for consumers and professionals, provides “a comprehensive source of information for anyone considering medical travel,” according to its author, Dr. Prem Jagyasi, CEO of ExHealth.

A look at the challenges
ExHealth conducted the survey that Jagyasi used as the basis for his book. “The overwhelming majority of respondents felt there was a great deal of potential for medical tourism that remains untapped,” said Jagyasi, whose Dubai Healthcare City-based firm provides healthcare consulting services, including for marketing and management.

The top four challenges in the medical and health travel area, according to survey respondents, are:

     • Accessing reliable information (cited by 59% of respondents),
     • Too many new entrants who are inexperienced in medical travel (54%),
     • Lack of pre- and post-operative care arrangements (52%),
     • Complicated laws and legal procedures (49%).

A guide for consumers
The guidebook’s objective is consumer education, and the book includes discussions of medical travel terms and the history of medical tours. Jagyasi said the medical travel guidebook also can serve as a reference for industry experts.

One section in the book addresses the steps consumers should take in making decisions about medical travel. It covers information on costs, what can go wrong and why or why not to travel for medical care.

The guidebook also contains a comprehensive section on planning and preparing for medical tourism. This section covers: destinations and their medical travel specialties; tourism activities; cultural and legal issues; and the 50 top medical travel destinations.

Other topics in the planning section include: finding the right physician; understanding the services of a medical travel facilitator (see sidebar), and arranging for pre and post-procedure care.