The high-growth medical tourism industry is estimated at US$100 billion by the year 2012. This is propelled by globalization and the increasing healthcare costs in developed countries, including USA. By then 500,000 Americans are expected to travel abroad for healthcare. These millions of medical tourists will travel to more than 30 countries in Asia, Eastern Europe, Central America and Africa.

In Asia the most popular destinations are Singapore, India, Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines. Thailand is reputable for cosmetic surgery especially medical tourists from Western Europe. Singapore attracts mainly medical tourists seeking for more complex procedures and world-class healthcare facilities and quality. India is another option and has a lower cost advantage.

The numbers of medical travelers to Singapore has declined because of the economic downturn. The sharpest decline is from Indonesia but this is compensated by more patients arriving from the Middle-East, Vietnam and Russia. The private hospitals are affected most and may continue to see declining medical tourists. Other countries offering medical services are also getting fewer patients.

The medical tourism industry in Thailand is still robust and is a very popular destination for tourists in general. Its medical costs are lower than Singapore and about one-fifth the cost of USA.

Malaysia is fast catching up with its neighbours and the government is promoting medical tourism aggressively. Among other measures, it has extended the visa period for medical tourists to 6 months from just one month. It is now attracting more medical tourists from Vietnam and Cambodia.

India is one of the first few countries in Asia to promote medical tourism and remain a sought-after destination for low cost and high quality healthcare services. Its cardiovascular and orthopaedic procedures are about one-tenth the cost of similar surgeries in the US.

Taiwan offers high quality and competitively priced healthcare services but is not as aggressive in promoting it. Its main target market is China, which makes sense as its culture and language are similar.

Korea has set a target of 100,000 international patients by 2012 and is actively promoting it as a medical tourism destination.

Which Asian country will lead in this fast growing medical tourism industry will depend not just on cost, quality and reputation. Other factors include ease of travel, communication, infrastructure, and the people that will make it a complete package.

Every year about 200,000 patients in the United States need a new heart valve because they have severe aortic stenosis. This is a condition in which the aortic valve starts to narrow and affect the efficient flow of blood from the heart to the other parts of the body. This can lead to congestive heart failure and sudden death.

Open-heart surgery is a very common procedure for such heart patients. However for some who are too old, too sick or may have had chest surgery before, this is not the option.

A less invasive procedure is now available for these patients. The doctor has to mount a valve on a catheter and then insert it into the patient’s groin or chest and thread it towards the heart.

This technique does not require stopping the heart and placing the patient on a heart-lung bypass machine, so weaker or sicker patients can endure the procedure. Without valve replacement, the life expectancy of patients with severe aortic stenosis is typically less than five years.

This two-hour procedure to replace the damaged aortic valve with a ‘stent-supported valve’ was pioneered in France in 2002.  In February 2009, Singapore became the first country in Asia to perform it.

Since then, five elderly patients have undergone this procedure at the Singapore General Hospital’s National Heart Centre. This treatment is recommended only to patients who have no other options or who are suffering from narrowed-valve symptoms like chest pain and breathlessness.

This procedure is still relatively new and how long the valve will last and the long term effects are still unknown. Comparatively the synthetic valves used in conventional open-heart surgery lasts 10 to 20 years.  For this reason, the hospital is not promoting the procedure to younger patients and those who are eligible for standard surgery.

There are also risk factors and a patient undergoing such procedure can die from a punctured blood vessel.

The success rates for this transcatheter technique in USA and Europe have been reported to be 90%.

The conventional valve costs about US$3000 while the new valve is almost 10 times more, though this is expected to be reduced in time.

With an ageing population in Singapore, the heart centre expects to treat an increasing number of patients with valve problems.

Singapore Health Partners Mediplex

One of the things I worry about when a foreign patient comes to town is accommodation.

Singapore offers a wide variety of accommodation types to suit different budgets, needs and preferences. These range from budget and boutique hotels, to 6 stars hotels and fully furnished serviced apartments in good locations.

Despite these choices, it is sometimes a challenge to find the right combination that pleases a fussy patient.

However this problem may be alleviated when a new integrated hospital complex is scheduled for completion towards the end of 2010.

This 19 storey Mediplex comprises a medical centre with specialist suites, hospital, and a hotel. This concept is believed to be the first in Asia and the objective is to capture a big slice of the estimated S$100 billion medical tourism market.

The medical centre has 189 consultation suites to house a wide spectrum of medical specialists. The hospital next door has 11 operating theatres, three day surgery units with 60 attached beds, an intensive care unit with 23 beds, radiotherapy unit, clinical laboratories and a full-service pharmacy.

Connected to the hospital is the hotel and guests have a choice of standard hotel rooms, serviced apartments and villas. All accommodations feature large bathrooms with rain showers, bay windows presenting floor to ceiling view.

The hotel is designed to offer a lush tropical garden ambience, with large spas, gymnasiums, six pools, ballroom, banquet hall, seminar and conference rooms, and a floor dedicated to retail food and beverage outlets.

A patient can check into the hotel in the morning and walks over to the medical centre to consult the doctor. Then he goes for lunch in one of the many restaurants and proceed to do some investigative tests in the afternoon. He returns to the hotel a few steps away, do some window shopping in the evening follow by a good massage in the spa. The next day he goes to the hospital next door for surgery and returns to the hotel to recuperate. All these activities are done in the same medical complex without leaving the building.

Family members and companions can stay in the same hotel, and enjoy the comfort and convenience of world-class facilities and at the same time provide emotional and physical support to the patient. This is healthcare and wellness at its best.

I am eagerly looking forward to the pleasure of showing this new integrated medical complex to my next patient.