MedicalTourismIndia April 4, 2007
Posted by Pallav Sharda in : Healthcare , trackbackMedicalTourismIndia is focused on promoting travel to India for healthcare. Although medical tourism is not a new phenomenon, it has surfaced in a formal way recently with such websites. This site is owned by Erco Travels (based out of Delhi, since 1999) - they operate in India, Mauritius, Netherlands and Belgium.
Although the site graphics broke down in FireFox 2.0, they looked fine when I switched to IE. The site content is a curious mix- although majority talks about Indian hospitals and facilities available, the pure travel links are oddly right next to medical ones (Once you click on any hospital name, bottom menu brings up a section about “India Tour Packages”).
Health Tourism concept is all fine with me, but being a healthcare professional myself, I feel a bit odd referring to medical care as “Medical Travel Packages” and “Hospital Packages”. I don’t think that placing leisure travel packages right next to medical ones helps either.
I recently read Oren Harari’s ‘Break From the Pack’ that talks about commoditization of everything. Clayton Christensen also talks about commoditization of healthcare in this article (needs subscription). 
I guess blurring the line between tourism and care delivery is a step towards it, although I’m still uncomfortable with the way it’s being marketed… 
Comments»
If the world is flat why would we not commodity healthcare for the elite? The only difference is the middle class is particpating in what eltie has participated for a milenium. The world elite came to America and now we have more participants and the concept is more universal. I welcome any responses
opem f0r discussion on the morality of body parts, world poverity and the origins of the before mentioned.
John,
Thanks for the comment. I actually agree with the ‘commoditization’ of healthcare (as Oren Harari argues in his book, this drives innovation).
You bring up a good point about ‘leveling the playing field’ and middle class participating in what was the elite’s privilege for long. My issue is with the way medical tourism per se is represented online. I think it tends to belittle the traditional image of medical care in some sense.
Don’t think morality is an issue, since it’s a fee-for-service model and doesn’t intentionally harm anyone. Poverty is probably a non-issue too because this brings cash in to developing countries.
~eIndia Moderator
Medical Tourism India is fast blossoming on account of its worldclass healthcare facilities at an astonishing affordable charge. Besides, medical tourists can heal themselves faster by spending their vacation at some of the most beautiful Indian tourist spots. The Indian hospitality is one of the prime reasons for the constant insurge of patients from across the world, thus contributing to the growth of the medical tourism industry in India.
Traveling India for medical treatment is effectively good.