Medical Tourism in Developing Countries

44 ● Medical Tourism in Developing Countriesof visits or procedures per year). Plastic surgery is also a popular invasivecategory of procedures, as those also are not covered by insurance.Increasingly, the invasive procedures performed in developing countrieshave spread out to include delicate eye surgery, cancer treatment, and jointreplacements. Invasive procedures are high tech and rely on state of the artmachinery.The diagnostic sector in developing countries is booming as people travelfor blood screening, bone density testing, heart stress tests, lipid analysis,and electrocardiograms. Countries providing these tests must have capabilitiesas high tech and up to date as the most advanced sites if they are tocompete in the global markets. International patients, especially those fromthe West, do not trust health screenings on outdated technology. After theirdiagnosis, some patients choose to remain for treatment while others returnhome with their results to consult with their familiar physician. Increasingly,preventive health screenings are done while on vacation.Services included in lifestyle medical tourism cover a broad range. Theyfocus on wellness, nutrition, stress reduction, weight loss, antiaging, andquite simply, pampering. Lifestyle medicine often combines traditionaltechniques (such as yoga), with state-of-the-art technology (such as exercisemachines). Among the traditional health services, the following are themost important: ayurveda (in India), yoga (in India and Thailand), andacupuncture (in Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines). They havebecome extremely popular in the West and people travel to their countriesof origin in search of original methods.Lifestyle medicine in developing countries tends to be supplied by clinics,hotels, and spas. In their efforts to lure customers, health-focused hotels andspas have expanded their range of services. Given the demand for facilitiesthat offer life-enhancing, stress-reducing, and skin-improving techniques,Misty Johanson shows how the resort industry has changed to focus onwellness tourism as a more “holistic approach to physical conditioning,essentially redirecting marketing and development efforts on spa amenitiesthat center on mind, body and being.” 9 Spas are offering a comprehensiveprogram that is based on extensive doctor interaction. At a time of managedcare, when doctor-patient interaction in the United States has becomeshorter and shorter, having the undivided attention of a physician for anextended period of time is in demand. As a result, several spas have extendedservices to include preventive medicine such as sleep psychology, vitaminsand supplements, physical therapy, and holistic healing. 10 All of this pointsout that lifestyle medicine is undergoing rapid change such that some suppliersare, as Ross noted, “making hospitals more like spas and spas morelike hospitals. Such facilities integrate alternative medical therapies with