GLOBAL: Medical tourism on ships

Na'ama Moran, entrepreneur, believes medical tourism on cruise ships is the next big thing and a logical mixing of the three increasingly popular areas of medical tourism, health and wellness and cruising.

She gave a presentation on the business of medical tourism on ships, at the recent 2009 Seasteading Conference. Seasteading was originally an idea for a floating island for business or accommodation using an anchored platform. But cruise ships are floating cities already. So seasteading has extended into refurbishing a cargo or cruise ship, for business or residential purposes. Long-term habitation in a cruise or cargo ship may not be as easy as buying an apartment building, but the floating luxury condominium residence The World has been housing jet-setters since March of 2002.The main advantage of a shipstead is cost: both up-front purchase and maintenance are far cheaper than that of any platform ever designed.

Questions remain about the length of time a cruise or cargo ship could sit in the ocean before needing to come back to shore. Fresh water capacity, wastewater capacity, and other supply / maintenance concerns will likely be resolved differently per ship. Unresolved is whether large vessels, which are designed for movement and delivery rather than continuous occupation, could be relied upon to sit at all. Safety and/or regulatory standards may mean they have to keep moving, come to dry dock, and get an annual survey and inspection. A shipstead would be able to rely on the time-tested strength of its construction, spending its efforts on developing solutions to those external problems without the additional challenges of managing an experimental platform.

Moran argues that using the existing hospitality afforded by modern cruise ships, the political advantages of location outside of any government's EEZ (Exclusive Economic Zone), and the growing trend of medical tourism around the world, she can build a business to provide revolutionary levels of hospital care to patients of all kinds. Operating in offshore waters outside of US jurisdiction, a medical cruise ship can offer equivalent cost savings to the services offered by foreign health care providers, but at increased levels of comfort and accommodation one would expect of a modern cruise vessel. As for the acquisition of a vessel, Moran notes, "This is the best time to get a cruise ship as there are many second hand ones around.’

Moran seeks to assemble a team of business builders, seed funders, and analysts, particularly those with specific experience in medicine, hospitality, insurance, and cruise industries, to kick start her vision of MediCruise. Many medical practitioners will be familiar with cruise ships, as they are a favoured location for medical conferences.

The original business idea for a medical tourism cruise ship is moving slowly forwards. SurgiCruise is a new business dedicated to bringing high quality medical treatment to patients at a reasonable cost by bringing care closer to them. SurgiCruise cruise ships will be specially retrofitted to provide a state-of-the-art facility to deliver medical care close to the United States. It has decided to start with orthopaedic surgery, as it is difficult for these patients to travel many hours in a plane and to stay in an unfamiliar country. The company says it is in the process of retrofitting a ship and hiring medical staff.