The Medical Tourism Association Participates in World Health Organization (WHO) Workshop on Medical Tourism in Kobe, Japan

The Medical Tourism Association participated in the World Health Organization (WHO) workshop on Medical Tourism in Kobe, Japan which took place February 24th through the 25th. Approximately 16 experts were invited from around the world to participate in the WHO Workshop on medical tourism.

The workshop was entitled "Workshop on the movement of patients across international borders - Emerging Challenges and opportunities for Healthcare Systems" The workshop was meant to address the growing phenomenon of the $60 billion dollar medical tourism industry which is marketed by over 35 countries. One of the main purposes was to ensure medical tourism "is supportive of public health goals." Renee-Marie Stephano, Chief Operating Officer of the Medical Tourism Association, and editor of the Medical Tourism Magazine participated in the workshop and as one of the leading experts in medical tourism and shared her views of how Medical Tourism is supportive of the local healthcare infrastructure and how medical tourism can have positive effects for the local population while providing revenue for the country itself also. The event was organized by the WHO Department of Ethics, Equity, Trade and Human Rights, WHO Headquarters, and the WHO Centre for Health Development.

The Objectives of the workshop were:

(1) To present current evidence on the movement of patients across international borders and discuss the effect on healthcare systems of the increase in trade in health services

(2) To identify emerging challenges as well as good practices, especially in the Asia-Pacific(3) To develop a framework to describe the implications for health care systems of health services' trade and delineate appropriate research and action.

The Medical Tourism Association is the first international non-profit association made up of the top international hospitals, healthcare providers, medical travel facilitators, insurance companies, and other affiliated companies and members with the common goal of promoting the highest level of quality of healthcare to patients in a global environment. Our Association promotes the interests of its healthcare provider and medical tourism facilitators members. The Medical Tourism Association has three tenets: Transparency, Communication and Education.