Health Tourism: Are We Prepared? Ghassan Shahrour, M.D.

Ghassan Shahrour, MD

“We are building virtual hospital network, not only to prepare ourselves to play a leading role in the medical tourism industry, but also to better serve our citizens who are traveling abroad in case of emergency”.

Ghassan Shahrour, MD

• Development and innovations in ICT and their applications in medical and health fields have ignited the market of health tourism to reach more than 45 billion USD per year.

• Moreover, more than eleven million cross-border patients worldwide seek treatment. Indeed, the population aging is also an important factor behind the fast growing of this market. In USA, as an example, more than one million Americans will travel outside the US for medical care in 2015.

Ghassan Shahrour, MD

Global destinations

• Among the top global destinations for medical tourism including: Costa Rica, India, Malaysia, Mexico, Singapore, South Korea, Turkey and United States.

• Moreover, many other destinations are busy in competing to find a larger stake in this promising industry.

Ghassan Shahrour, MD

• There are many factors behind the thrive of health tourism in these destinations including the growing government and private sector investment in healthcare projects, commitment to international accreditation, quality assurance, transparency of outcomes, relative cost savings on medical procedures, social stability, desirable tourism infrastructure, clinical excellence, advanced ICT applications in medical and health services.

Ghassan Shahrour, MD

What kind of health services needed?

• Cosmetic surgery, dentistry, cardiovascular,

reproductive, organ transplant, orthopedics treatments as well as seeking weight loss and second opinions.

Ghassan Shahrour, MD

Medical Tourism Organizations:

• During the last decade, many organizations

emerged to contribute in this growing market. Also, many scientific events have been organized to equip all stakeholders with knowledge and skills to promote these needed services in order to compete and perform better and better.

Ghassan Shahrour, MD

Case from Croatia: • The promising country has taken many steps in health and

tourism infrastructures. Moreover, Croatia is going to host one of these important events during June 12-14 this year. This international conference on: ICT & Bio-Medical Technologies in Health Tourism is organized by the International Institute of Tele-Medicine (IITM), in partnership with EMMIT/IMIT (Euro Mediterranean & International Medical Informatics & Telemedicine), and our colleagues in e-Health Committee of Croatian Society for Medical Informatics.

Ghassan Shahrour, MD

The main topics of this conference: • * Health tourism and Medical Informatics • * Medical & epidemiological data bases in health tourism • * Electronic personal health record and patient smart card • * Standards and interoperability in Health Informatics (HL7, Dicom, XML…) • * Euro-Mediterranean -cross border applications • * Intelligent systems and e-health applications in tourism • * Health information systems and telemedicine in hotels • * Telemedicine and nursing informatics • * Social and legal aspects of telemedicine • *Social smart media and Mobile health solutions • * Smartphone- based applications and Tele-monitoring • * Tele-consulting, Tele-diagnosis and e-care • * Tele-monitoring and management of chronic diseases • * Tele-rehabilitation systems, Tele-homecare • * Assistive Technology, e-Health and e-inclusion • * Personalized medicine and quality of medical care • * Education in e-health and telemedicine • * Global e-Health and web-based applications • * Security, privacy and ethical aspect in e-Health

Ghassan Shahrour, MD

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Ghassan Shahrour, MD