Progress in Motion

These are very exciting times in the Medical Tourism Industry. The industry has matured and changed so much over the past few years. We have seen it develop from a fragmented and disjointed industry to extremely organized, much more educated, sophisticated and stronger, thus headed in the right direction. Deloitte has estimated a 35% growth in medical tourism each year and we are seeing this growth already. More governments are getting involved in supporting and growing medical tourism in their country or region, and hospitals are putting aside differences in competition to promote their region and country. This will all result in growth for the industry.

In 2010, the Medical Tourism Association is spreading its wings in the area of global healthcare and working towards the improvement of healthcare in the public and private sectors to provide high quality of care for local populations as well as international ones. The MTA is also expanding its educational objectives beyond the Medical Tourism Magazine and the Health Tourism Magazine with the publication of several instructional guides about Medical Tourism and regional educational workshops. With our partnership with several academic institutions, the MTA will also be involved in several research projects for 2010.

We are also excited to announce that at this year’s 3rd annual World Medical Tourism & Global Health Congress in Los Angeles, September 20-22nd, 2010, we have allocated a large budget to bring in up to 200 “sponsored buyers” to the conference. And the theme of this year’s congress will be “Progress in Motion” to celebrate the development and continued growth in the industry.

I am particularly looking forward to the upcoming Asia Global Healthcare and Medical Tourism Conference in Seoul, Korea, April 13-15th, 2010. This Asia medical tourism conference is a partnership between the MTA, KHIDI and the Korean government. The MTA and KHIDI have worked together to create a budget to bring in international buyers from insurance companies, employers and foreign governments to educate them on the high quality of healthcare in Asia and Korea. We have a great line up of speakers and some really high profile attendees. http:// www.medicaltourismcongress.com. KHIDI will be handling the registration and sponsorship of this event so be sure to check out their website http://www.medical-korea.org/home/. I hope to see all of you in Seoul in April!