Medical tourism: An emerging global healthcare industry

Medical tourism is a multi-billion dollar industry today and continues to grow. There is a current competition to see what countries will capitalize on this growing global industry. The phenomenon of the industry is the amount of resources countries around the world are putting into attracting the medical tourist by offering high quality, low cost, specialized care with concierge and hospitality benefits. Medical Tourism is an important part of a growing interest of health care providers in other countries around the world willing to attract and accommodate medical travelers. As a result there has been a growing concern for the creation of professional standards designed to protect the quality and safety of patient care and the types of business opportunities that are available in this new industry.