Joint force needed to develop medical tourism: organization

Taiwan faces many key challenges in developing the sector, with collaboration between the public and private sector one of the most significant, said Medical Tourism Association (MTA) CEO Jonathan Edelheit, who also praised Taiwan’s medical tourism for its value and advanced quality.

The MTA is an international nonprofit organization consisting of various hospitals, insurance companies and health care providers committed to promoting health care to patients in a global environment.

There are currently three institutions working together to push Taiwan onto the medical tourism stage, explained Fan Tai-hsiang, vice manager of the Taiwan Task Force for Medical Travel (TTFMT) , a quasi-government organization assisting Taiwanese hospitals in meeting the demands of foreign patients.

Aside from TTFMT, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) is responsible for marketing while the Chung-hua Institution for Economic Research specializes in forecasting the production value of the business, Fan said.

These groups, however, do not seem to be well coordinated. When asked how many foreign travelers come to Taiwan for medical tourism each year, Fan had trouble providing a number because of the lack of a central coordination unit able to collect data from hospitals.

The only number he could provide was for 2009, when 89,000 foreigners received treatment.

Although Taiwan hopes to gain a significant share of the potentially lucrative medical tourism market and become the hot destination for surgery or health checkups, Edelheit said it will have to work on building a dialogue between sectors to be successful.