Pharmafile Logo

Article: The Patient Abroad

April 2, 2015 |  

Published in Medical Marketing & Media March 2015

Approximately 11 million people were medical tourists in 2013, generating a market worth over $50 billion. While obtaining accurate data is challenging, estimates suggest the global medical tourism market is expanding by 25% each year.

Having grown up in the UK, where high-quality healthcare is available to all through the National Health Service, I hadn’t given the concept of medical tourism a great deal of thought before I moved to Asia. It would simply not have occurred to me to seek healthcare overseas for any other reason than if I happened to fall ill while traveling. 

I first became aware of the concept when reading rumors that Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe was being treated in one of Singapore’s exclusive private hospitals – which happened to be just down the road from my apartment at the time. This led to much discussion among my peers about how much it would cost to be a medical tourist in Singapore. “High end” patients can expect to accrue bills of thousands of dollars. The most expensive “hospitel” (hospital hotel) penthouse suite (not room) in Singapore costs over $8,000 per night – and it does not include the additional costs of medical treatment. This particular establishment anticipates that at least half of its “guests” (not patients) will come from overseas.

Read the full article on Medical Marketing & Media »

This content was provided by Inizio

Company Details

 Latest Content from  Inizio 

Research Partnership has been ranked in the Pharma Times Pharma Fast 50

Industry Magazine Pharma Times has partnered with Catalyst Corporate Finance to publish a detailed analysis of the 50 fastest growing private, independently owned pharma companies in the UK and Research...

Women’s health in emerging markets

Why can understanding and improving women’s health in emerging markets be challenging? What strategies can global pharma develop to support women and overcome these challenges? Associate Director Rachel Howard and...

Research Partnership has published a new Living with Lupus (SLE) market report for 2017

SLE is a progressive and debilitating disease which affects 5 million people worldwide.

PEGASUS AND UCL JOIN FORCES IN INSPIRING HEALTHY DECISIONS

Pegasus, an Ashfield company, part of UDG Healthcare plc, is proud to announce the launch of its new propriety model for planning in health – CHANGE – which was developed...

Cool heads in a crisis?

Understanding the role pharmaceutical companies can play in fighting today’s global health pandemics

Biosimilars: Bringing patients into the conversation

Published in eyeforpharma January 2017 by Mariel Metcalfe

Access and elimination: the future of DAAs in hepatitis C

Published in Pharmaphorum January 2017

EphMRA One Day Meeting

We are delighted to be attending and presenting a paper at the EphMRA one day meeting on Tuesday 21st February, in London

Video: Segmentation research

Why would a pharma company want to carry out a segmentation study? What are some of the challenges? Head of Business Analytics Tom Nolte and Associate Director Dr Marianne Jaeger...

Pharmaceutical Market Research Conference 2017

We are delighted to be exhibiting and presenting a paper at the Pharmaceutical Market Research Conference 1-2 February in Parsippany, NJ.