Medical Tourism in Developing Countries

Promoting Medical Tourism ● 147company also has an agreement with Wyeth, an American company, thedrug it produces must meet American FDA standards. 21Sometimes professional organizations such as nursing or pharmaceuticalassociations are in charge of standardization of care and quality control.Even so, they must work closely with the public sector.Often, even mere association with a foreign university or medical institutionprovides assurance of quality to consumers. Dubai Healthcare Citysought out the involvement of Harvard Medical International. There, forexample, all issues of accreditation and quality control are handled by theCenter for Planning and Quality, one of the three branches of involvementbetween the University and the health entity that will be in charge of ongoingquality maintenance. 22There has been a rising global awareness of safety and quality in healthcare and, as David Warner noted, international standards for medical care“are beginning to be more objectified and widely disseminated through thedevelopment of practice standards and the introduction of evidence based costeffective medicine as the standard for practice.” 23 To the extent that developingcountries buy into this standardization, they are likely to benefit frompositive externalities such as more trade, and through trade, the reinforcementof high standards (as Marconini noted, “A more open trading system is areliable provider of foreign exchange to countries that export and, through theintroduction of greater competition and cross-linkage effects within nationalborders, may upgrade service quality levels of countries that export. [italicsmine]” 24 ). Still, many questions remain unanswered, and the further expansionof medical tourism will depend on their answers (such as, for example,When source and destination countries do not have same standards, whoseare relevant in the demand and supply of medical tourism? Also, when outsourcingX-ray and lab work, which country’s standards are upheld?).AccreditationIt is one thing to have success rates in surgeries and quite another to makethem credible and recognizable across the world. The Apollo Hospitalschain, for example, is on par with the best U.S. cardiac surgery centers (suchas the Cleveland Clinic) when it comes to success rates for cardiac surgeries.25 However, the average patient does not read medical journals and keepabreast of industry improvements. The patient needs concrete and quantifiablesignals of quality. These are provided through hospital accreditation.Accreditation is the process by which an impartial entity assesseshealth-care organizations to check if they meet a particular set of standards.The review process is entirely voluntary and indicates that a health-care