Medical Tourism News and Research

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Medical tourism (also called medical travel, health tourism or global healthcare) is a term initially coined by travel agencies and the mass media to describe the rapidly-growing practice of travelling across international borders to obtain health care.

Desperate patients offered untested, risky stem cell treatments, says Wisconsin professor

Desperate patients are easy prey for unscrupulous clinics offering untested and risky stem cell treatments, says law and bioethics Professor Alta Charo of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who is studying "stem cell tourism."

26 Mar 2014

Wal-Mart expanding program for no-cost employee surgeries

Wal-Mart announced this week that it will expand a program that ends out-of-pocket procedure and travel costs for employees seeking some heart and spine surgeries if they go to hospitals across the country that have agreements with the retailer.

15 Oct 2012

'Medical travel' can be used to access advanced technologies

The search for medical technologies through 'medical travel' can change the lives of patients and their family members, according to medical anthropologists Cecilia Vindrola-Padros and Linda M. Whiteford, who examined the lives of Bolivian and Paraguayan families who traveled to Buenos Aries, Argentina, seeking pediatric oncology care for their children.

21 Jul 2012

Bloomberg Markets examines spread of multidrug-resistant bacteria in India, discusses global implications

Bloomberg Markets magazine in its June issue examines microbes that incorporate the New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase-1, or NDM-1, gene, making them resistant to nearly all available antibiotics.

9 May 2012

HIV treatment to be extended to asylum seekers in UK

Now foreign nationals are to be offered free treatment for HIV under the NHS under plans backed by the government. Campaigners say the move in England will reduce the risk of Britons being infected and cut the costs of more expensive later treatment. Currently only British residents are eligible, which excludes migrants.

29 Feb 2012

SonoPhoto Dynamic Therapy shows promise against squamous cell carcinoma

George Miller developed an ulcer on his bottom lip that began to bleed. His doctor sent cell scrapings to a pathologist, and diagnosed Miller with squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). According to TMD Limited, a medical tourism company, squamous cell carcinoma is the 2nd most common cancer in humans and other animals.

6 Jan 2012

EpiGen to collaborate with Nestl- Research Center in Switzerland

The EpiGen Consortium, an international alliance of the world's leading epigenetics researchers (Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences of the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), National University of Singapore, University of Southampton, Medical Research Council - Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit, AgResearch Limited, Auckland UniServices Limited) are pleased to announce the creation of a research collaboration with Nestl- Research Center in Switzerland.

23 Nov 2011

AMERIMED Hospitals now part of Global Health Voyager network

Global Health Voyager, Inc., a publicly-traded, full-service, international medical tourism company, today announced that AMERIMED Hospitals -- spanning key tourist destinations in Mexico including Cabo San Lucas, Cancún, Puerto Vallarta, and San José del Cabo - are now part of the Global Health Voyager network.

8 Nov 2011

IHPM, Ciming announce formal collaboration in the field of Enterprise Health Management

Ciming Health Checkup Group and Institute for Health and Productivity Management (IHPM) are pleased to announce their formal collaboration in the field of Enterprise Health Management, for the purpose of bringing health and productivity solutions to employers in China.

13 Jun 2011

CMAJ report outlines challenges, approaches to manage and identify NDM-1 antibiotic resistant enzyme

An enzyme associated with extensive antibiotic resistance called New Delhi metallo---lactamase-1 (NDM-1), endemic in India and Pakistan and spreading worldwide, has been found in two people in the Toronto area, one of whom acquired it in Canada, states a case report in CMAJ.

31 May 2011

Hope4Cancer offers gentle non-invasive therapies for patients with brain tumor

Linda Roberts was puzzled when her favorite food, chocolate ice cream, suddenly did not taste good, and her prized orchids didn't smell nice either. When she began having sudden, severe headaches, she mentioned the changes in taste and smell to her doctor. After several tests, Roberts was diagnosed with a glioblastoma multiforme, the most aggressive form of brain tumor.

8 Apr 2011

NUS, Agilent partner for lipidomics research

Agilent Technologies Inc. and the National University of Singapore today announced an agreement to develop expertise and knowledge in the area of analytical lipidomics. The goal of the partnership is to develop workflow solutions that enable researchers to more accurately understand disease states.

30 Mar 2011

Lancet editorial highlights similarities between current health challenges, those from 1911

"After a century of progress, the issues that medicine must tackle in the coming year aren't that different from the ones that faced doctors at the start of 1911, according to the observations" published Jan. 1 in a Lancet editorial, LiveScience reports (Parry, 12/30).

4 Jan 2011

Study on potential advantages and disadvantages of medical tourism

Medical tourism is to go under the microscope in a major new study, led by an academic from the University of York, which aims to assess its potential advantages and disadvantages.

6 Oct 2010

Americans head south to Mexico for cheaper health care

Americans are flocking to Mexico for discount health care, The San Francisco Chronicle reports.

23 Sep 2010

Aethlon Medical receives approval for Chronic HCV Infection treatment

Aethlon Medical, Inc., the pioneer in developing therapeutic filtration devices to address infectious disease and cancer, announced today that the Medanta Independent Ethics Committee (MIEC) at Medanta, The Medicity Institute (Medicity) has approved a treatment program entitled "Use of the Aethlon Hemopurifier in Treating Chronic HCV Infection in Combination with Standard of Care (SOC) Drug Therapy."

26 Aug 2010

Majority of women support single woman using IVF treatment to conceive, survey finds

A recent survey of American women aged 25-45 that gauged attitudes toward In Vitro Fertilization found that 83% of these women support a single woman using IVF to conceive if she is emotionally and financially able to care for the child.

16 Aug 2010

Newly identified gene enabling bacterial resistance to most antibiotics found in South Asia, U.K., study finds

A study published online Wednesday in Lancet Infectious Diseases identifies a gene that enables bacteria to resist most antibiotics and calls for better global surveillance of multi-drug resistant bacteria, the Associated Press reports (8/11).

12 Aug 2010

Americans stop seeking medical care for recent illness, survey reveals

With unemployment rates remaining at an all-time high, one in five Americans chose not to seek medical care for a recent illness or injury, with four out of 10 citing cost as the primary factor, according to a Deloitte Center for Health Solutions survey of more than 4,000 adults in the United States.

5 Aug 2010

Patients willing to travel for cheaper, better care; Especially when the boss pays

Employers, in search of better deals on surgeries, are in some cases sending employees they insure hundreds of miles for medical care, Kaiser Health News/USA Today reports. "Forget about traveling to Thailand or India for low-cost surgery. … By steering workers to facilities with high-quality care and lower prices, employers say they can reduce their costs 20% to 40% — more than enough to cover the travel expenses."

8 Jul 2010