Introduction to Mediism

"Health is wealth” is a well known proverb. Spurt in technology pose a problem for medical experts. That is why many medical tourists are generally residents of the developed countries of the world. Mediism is a concept; a high pace phenomena that eliminates the boundary of healthcare market in the new age.

The definition of Mediism vary from simple to complex; an act of travel abroad for medical treatment to movement fo people for elective medical, surgical or dental care across the border. Most of the cases the visiting patients travel to the places of tourism interest as a post treatment option. My defintion of mediism is the “phenomena of people’s movement from the homeland to another for medical treatment, and stays at the destination for more than 24 hours”. Patients may domestic or international.

Let us look at some of definitions given by others.

Act of traveling to other countries to obtain medical, dental, and/or surgical care.[1]

A holiday with a provision of cost effective private medical care in collaboration with the tourism industry for patients needing surgical and/or other forms of specialized treatment.[2]

Patients going to a different country (or places) for either urgent or elective medical procedures”.[3]

Health tourism is a big umbrella, which includes Spa tourism, Wellness tourism, Ayurveda tourism, Rejuvenation tourism, fitness tourism, and the Medical tourism. Mediism can be synonymously used as Medi-tourism or Medical Tourism. The word Mediism facelift Medi-tourism by giving a better, positive image.

Reasons for Mediism

Medical tourism has been in existence for so many years. But it has become so popular in recent years. The main reasons are:

1. Cost effectiveness
2. Shorter waiting periods
3. Quality of treatment
4. Insurance Coverage
5. Better Deals on Medical Packages
6. Variety of Treatment Options
7. World class health services
8. Infrastructure and Equipment
9. Affordable Air travel
10. Pride
11. Influence of friends and relatives
12. Popularity of the destination

Above-mentioned reasons make the medical tourism more popular around the world. It is estimated that 500,000 Americans traveled out of the country to get medical treatment and dental work in 2005 and the numbers continue to rise[4]. According to the research of Dr Milica Bookman, (Professor of economics at St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, US and author of the book Medical Tourism in Developing Countries) on the economic impact of medical tourism, 750,000 Americans are expected to have travelled abroad for treatment in 2007 and over six million will be doing by 2010[5].
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_tourism, accessed on 28/11/06
[2] http://www.medicaltourism.ca/, accessed on 29/11/06
[3] Health tourism set to grow, Business Times (Malaysia), Nov 01, 2002
[4] http://www.newmedicalhorizons.com/medical-tourism.html
[5] http://www.merinews.com/catFull.jsp?articleID=130884