Medical Tourism in Developing Countries

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Promoting Medical Tourism ● 103Table 5.1 Indicators of human capitalCountryAdultliteracy2003Tertiary studentsin science,mathematics,and engineering(% of tertiary)1998–2003Public expenditureon education(% of totalexpenditure)2000–02Publicexpendituretertiary(% all levels)2000–02Argentina 97.2 15 13.8 17.5Chile 95.7 31 18.7 14.0Costa Rica 95.8 26 22.4 18.8Cuba 96.9 n.a. 18.7 17.5India 61.0 20 12.7 20.3Jordan 89.9 30 n.a. n.a.Malaysia 88.7 40 20.3 33.3Philippines 92.6 25 17.8 14.0South Africa 82.4 17 18.5 14.6Thailand 92.6 n.a. 28.3 21.7Source : United Nations Development Programme, Human Development Report 2005 (New York: UNDP,2005), tables 1, 11, and 12.engineering. Tertiary education in these technical fields is crucial since it isa stepping-stone to medical education and, since technology changes rapidlyand information becomes obsolete rapidly, it is necessary for keeping upwith globalization and technological change. Countries promoting medicaltourism will have to devote time and resources to constantly retraining theirworkers so they stay up to date. Thus, the number of students in the tertiarylevel of education is an indicator of a country’s ability to compete in theglobal economy.As evident from table 5.1, the percent of all students at the tertiary levelenrolled in mathematics, sciences, and engineering is not the lowest in India,but rather in Argentina and South Africa (15 and 17 percent respectively).Malaysia leads, with 40 percent, and Chile and Jordan are not far behind.This seems to indicate that that there is no geographical concentration oftechnically skilled students. However, that is not true since Asia has somehighly populous countries so that an observation of absolute numbers ismore revealing than percentages (indeed, Indian universities grant diplomasto more English-speaking scientists, engineers, and technicians than the restof the world combined 21 ). Moreover, training takes place both inside andoutside the country, so for the purpose of building human capital, it is usefulto also observe the numbers of people trained outside the country. There isevidence, for example, that Asians are flooding training centers in mathematicsand the sciences, especially in the United States. At Johns Hopkins
104 ● Medical Tourism in Developing CountriesUniversity, some 60 percent of graduate students in the sciences are foreign,most from Asia. In the course of a single year, all graduate students inmathematics were from China. 22 In addition, Indian immigrants to theUnited States represent 3 – 4 percent of all immigrants, but they account for20 percent of those with professional or technical skills. 23Public sector expenditure on education is an indicator of governmentpriorities. Thailand has the highest percent of expenditure on overall education(28.3 percent) while Malaysia leads with respect to government expenditureon tertiary level education, spending 33.3 percent of its totaleducation budget.As noted above, the knowledge explosion is characterized by rapid obsolescenceof techniques and equipment. This is clearly reflected in medicine,with its multilayered specializations and superspecializations, all of whichchange daily with respect to diagnostics, procedures, and pharmaceuticals.For this reason, it is important to have seminars, symposia, conferences, andworkshops to keep updating one’s knowledge and sharing information withothers. Cross-fertilization of ideas is crucial. The countries that have beenable to tie that into their training have benefited. To the extent that theyhave contacts with Western medical institutions, acquisition of new knowledgeis enhanced. To the extent that they have diversified into medicaleducation, keeping up with ideas is also enhanced.But the most important expenditure must be on training medicalstaff and in this way, all countries under study sponsor medical education.In India, the authorities encourage medical tourism by helping trainover 20,000 new doctors per year. 24 Altogether, India produces some20,000–30,000 doctors and nurses every year. 25 Cuba also trains doctorsand nurses at home, and even offers training to those from Guatemala,Venezuela, and Honduras. 26 South Africa, despite having lost skilled medicalworkers when it switched to majority rule (and many whites emigrated),has stepped up its training facilities to make up for the void.The Language of Medicine and ResearchFluency in world languages, especially those in which medicine and biomedicalresearch is being conducted, is a clear advantage for countries intheir pursuit of medical tourism. English has become the lingua franca ingeneral, and especially with respect to technical research. As a result, Indiaand the Philippines have an advantage over other countries as English isone of their official languages and the only one that is used outside itsborders. For the same reason, China has a disadvantage. Although theEnglish language is the most popular foreign language studied in China,
Page 4:
Medical Tourism inDeveloping Countr
Page 7:
This page intentionally left blank
Page 11 and 12:
List of AcronymsAIDS Acquired Immun
Page 13 and 14:
Page 15 and 16:
2 ● Medical Tourism in Developing
Page 17 and 18:
Page 19 and 20:
Page 21 and 22:
Page 23 and 24:
10 ● Medical Tourism in Developin
Page 25 and 26:
Page 27 and 28:
Page 29 and 30:
Table 1.1 Economic indicators and t
Page 31 and 32:
Page 33 and 34:
Page 35 and 36:
Page 37 and 38:
Page 40 and 41:
Plastic Surgery is Not Peanuts ●
Page 43 and 44:
Page 45 and 46:
Page 47 and 48:
Page 49 and 50:
Page 51 and 52:
Page 53 and 54:
Page 55 and 56:
Page 57 and 58:
Page 59 and 60:
Page 61 and 62:
Page 63 and 64:
Page 65 and 66: 52 ● Medical Tourism in Developin
Page 107 and 108: This page intentionally left blank
Page 113 and 114: 100 ● Medical Tourism in Developi
Page 115: 102 ● Medical Tourism in Developi
Page 127 and 128: Table 5.4 Indicators of physical in
Page 151 and 152: This page intentionally left blank
Page 167 and 168:
154 ● Medical Tourism in Developi
Page 169 and 170:
Page 171 and 172:
Page 173 and 174:
Page 175 and 176:
Page 177 and 178:
Page 179 and 180:
Page 181 and 182:
Page 183 and 184:
Page 185 and 186:
Page 187 and 188:
Page 189 and 190:
Page 191 and 192:
Page 193 and 194:
Page 195 and 196:
Page 197 and 198:
Page 199 and 200:
Page 201 and 202:
188 ● NotesTreatment Abroad Could
Page 203 and 204:
190 ● Notes60. Emerging markets i
Page 205 and 206:
192 ● Notes21. Woodward et al.,
Page 207 and 208:
194 ● Notes57. Economist, July 31
Page 209 and 210:
196 ● Notes25. New York Times, De
Page 211 and 212:
198 ● Notes73. Rupa Chanda, “Tr
Page 213 and 214:
200 ● Notes16. Peter Schofield,
Page 215 and 216:
202 ● Notes56. Thomas Friedman, T
Page 217 and 218:
204 ● Notes99. Chanda, “Trade i
Page 219 and 220:
206 ● Notes21. Marvin Cetron, Fre
Page 221 and 222:
208 ● Notes71. Chanda, “Trade i
Page 223 and 224:
210 ● Notes116. Cited in Rashmi B
Page 225 and 226:
212 ● Notes2. Simonetta Zarrilli,
Page 227 and 228:
214 ● Notes30. Joint Commission I
Page 229 and 230:
216 ● Notes65. Mattoo and Rathind
Page 231 and 232:
218 ● Notes102. It is a problem i
Page 233 and 234:
220 ● Notes29. Larry Solomon, “
Page 235 and 236:
Page 237 and 238:
224 ● Selected BibliographyBower,
Page 239 and 240:
226 ● Selected BibliographyJohans
Page 241 and 242:
228 ● Selected BibliographyRoffe,
Page 243 and 244:
Page 245 and 246:
232 ● Indexbrain drain/gain 105-9
Page 247 and 248:
234 ● Indexdestination countriesa
Page 249 and 250:
236 ● Indexhealth careon airplane
Page 251 and 252:
238 ● IndexJJohanson, Misty 44, 9
Page 253 and 254:
240 ● Indexmedical tourism (conti
Page 255 and 256:
242 ● Indexpublic health (continu
Page 257 and 258:
244 ● Indextourism sectormarket s
show all

Medical Tourism in Developing Countries

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?