Consumer awareness is an important part of the growth and future of the medical tourism industry. It does not matter how advanced the healthcare is, how affordable it is, or the amazing personalized service the patient receives, if the potential consumers do not know that it is even available then they will never utilize those services.
The MTA has worked diligently over the past few years towards a consumer awareness campaign. We have accomplished this through our documentary, Angels Overseas which features a patient traveling overseas for a double knee replacement, saving $80,000 USD. This documentary shows the entire patient experience and is available online on the MTA website for consumers to watch.
We have made large and challenging efforts to make Medical Tourism Magazine and Health Tourism Magazine online available at no cost for consumers around the world to read and learn about medical tourism. We also assist patients who contact us by posting their inquiry through our website, allowing patients to be referred to MTA members upon the patient’s approval.
As the only organization in the industry focused on consumer awareness, in 2011 we will continue our commitment to consumer awareness through a new initiative. We will be launching “Medical Tourism Magazine Destination Guides.” These guides will be books in color with destination information about a city, region or countries healthcare, wellness and tourism options.
They will be in color because I personally believe a picture is worth a thousand words, and patients need to see the quality of the hospitals with their own eyes and the tourism options available to them if applicable. The MTA will work with healthcare clusters, tourism boards, cities and countries to develop these books region by region. While these books will be available to purchase in print, since most people gather their information online, we are launching in a more cutting edge means by making these destination guides available at no charge to potential consumers, patients and companions.
The availability of these books will give the potential access to hundreds of thousands or in the future millions of patients to learn about new destinations for healthcare, cutting edge medical procedures, and alternative medicine and wellness around the world, all at the click of a mouse, and all at no cost. This should significantly advance “consumer and patient awareness” and assist to increase the number of patients traveling to destinations that create a medical tourism magazine destination guide.
Furthermore, as part of our commitment to education and advancing the industry we have come out with 3 new medical tourism books which should move the industry in a very positive direction.
The Books are:
- “Medical Tourism: An International Healthcare Guide For Insurers, Employers and Governments”
- “Developing an International Patient Center: A Guide to Creating the Best Patient Experience”
- “Medical Tourism Facilitator: A Best Practices Guide to Healthcare Facilitation for International Patients”
These three books will be available to purchase on the MTA website.
I hope you enjoy reading them and are able to use the cumulative knowledge gathered within their pages.
