The Mövenpick Resort and Spa at the Dead Sea in Jordan is touted as the only place in the world where benefi cial rays from the sun extend to this level below the sea, and virtually no UV radiation can reach the skin causing skin problems, especially psoriasis. In India there is a particular method of hip replacement, not available in the United States (or other Western countries), that makes recovery easier for the patient. Cuba uses a unique procedure for retinitis pigmentose (night blindness) in the Clinic Cira Garcia.80 It also excels in treatment of skin diseases that have been incurable in other countries.
It has, for example, developed new procedures for vitiligo as well as new drugs for it. Thailand fi rst made a name for itself as an international center for sex change operations (gender reassignment surgery), during the 1970s. More recently, it has specialized in the “Thailand tuck” plastic surgery offered by Bumrungrad Hospital in Bangkok. In India, the B. M. Birla Heart Research Center in Calcutta is a specialty hospital dedicated to the diagnosis, treatment, and research related to cardiovascular diseases. Chile’s nature and thermal baths in the Los Lagos Region are considered unparalleled in the continent. The King Hussein Cancer Center, the only internationally accredited hospital in Jordan, offers the most up-to-date cancer treatments in the region. In Argentina, Mendoza has several clinics that specialize in eye surgeries, drawing both national and international patients.
Although Costa Rica attracts medical tourists, it loses some of its domestic patients because it lacks a specialization: in vitro fertilization. As a result of prohibitive laws, patients who seek infertility treatment must go abroad. For example, in the Unidad De Fertilidad Del country (Bogota, Colombia), 80% of foreign patients are Costa Rican.81 Also, some who have tried Western medicine and been unsatisfi ed with the results have turned to alternative medicine. One of these is traditional techniques and substances. Houyuan cited this as one of the reasons many Westerners use traditional Chinese medicine.
Also, medical tourists compare success rates in different specialties at home and abroad. They take note of the fact that the Escorts Heart Institute and Research Center in Delhi and Faridabad performs some 15,000 heart operations every year and the death rate among patients during surgery is less than half that of most major U.S. hospitals. In some cases, specialization is measured by the speed with which a procedure can be performed rather than the procedure itself. There is anecdotal evidence of cities specializing in medical care based on the 30-hour layovers that airline crews have.
Distance a Key Factor in Medical Tourism's Orientation
