Medical tourism is already a US $65-billion industry and set to grow further, with 28 countries across four continents catering to the two million international health traveller who each year receive treatment in countries other than their own.

And the UAE – which currently witnesses an outbound annual medical travel of nearly $2 billion a year – is ideally positioned to take advantage of the surge in popularity of medical tourism. This is the message that visitors to Healthcare Travel Exhibition & Congress, being held in Dubai between November 15 and 17, will hear.

“The Middle East has unique dual position in the Medical Tourism Industry;” explained Healthcare Travel Congress chairman and ExHealth MD Dr Prem Jagyasi.

“On one hand, the region’s well-developed hospitals are preparing to capture the international market for elective procedures while on the other, international healthcare organisations are tapping into GCC’s affluent society in search of highly sophisticated and advanced healthcare services unavailable within the GCC.”

And the Middle East will have to fight to attract medical tourists with other countries and regions also looking to tap into this lucrative market.

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"Malaysia is emerging as a significant destination for affordable, quality healthcare as its hospitals have been accredited to International Healthcare Standards by The International Society for Quality in Health Care (ISQua),” commented APHM president Dr Jacob Thomas.

“This conference is an excellent platform to inform ‘healthcare buyers’ about what we have to offer in Malaysia.”

Some of the topics to be discussed at the Healthcare Travel Exhibition & Congress will be ‘how to attract medical tourists’, ‘the importance of medical facilitator,’ ‘how to address cultural and religious issues’ and ‘the Impact of accreditation and quality’.

Key speakers will include Vishal Bali, CEO of Wockhardt Hospitals Group, one of India’s largest healthcare providers and Rudy Rupak, founder and president of Planet Hospital.