Friday, April 04, 2008

Medical tourism business model

Medical tourism is getting more and more popular these days. The primary reason for this is the horrible state of the American health care system (both in terms of quality and affordability). In fact, India and Singapore offer cardiac surgeries for less than one tenth the price of America! Moreover, Indian doctors make just as few errors as their American counterparts. Just today in the Detroit Free Press, there was a story on a man who had his liver transplant in India because it cost nearly half a million dollars in the US (whereas in India it cost him less than $80,000 with a 10 week recuperation period included).

The business opportunity? Perhaps a "travel agency" for medical tourism, a catalog system for all of the foreign doctors, a classifieds, etc. There are many of them out there, and I definitely foresee a lot of growth in this industry.

Image Credit: CBC News