There is now a serious rise in medical tourism which can be broadly defined as the provision of cost-effective private medical care in collaboration with the tourism industry. The attractions of being able to have an operation or nose job, spa visit, holistic healing or yoga combined with a sunshine holiday without having to wait in the National Health Service queue is proving a growth industry.

The World Medical Tourism market is estimated at over £10 billion and it is growing at over 35 per cent a year and now around half a million UK medical tourists go abroad each year – and coming back in better condition. It is a fact that medical costs can be halved in continental Europe and halved again in Thailand.

India and Thailand are popular destinations, with Singapore probably in third spot, but it is Thailand which is now making the running. Thailand sees the United Kingdom as an important market for tourism and medical holidays and with its modern hospitals and well-qualified doctors it believes it can make considerable inroads into this market. Read more…

The medical industry has changed significantly over the past decade. One of the major changes is that many medical offices are moving from paper to electronic medical records. There are also a number of practice management software packages available to medical practitioners. This makes their lives easier, but what does it mean for patients? To understand the answer to that question, it is first important to understand what an electronic medical records system is.

Generally EMRs, electronic medical records, and EHRs, electronic health records, are synonymous. These systems keep track of medical information. These systems keep medical records stored in a central location so that they can be made available to pharmacies, specialists and other providers. What this means for the patient is that medical care is becoming more portable. Read more…