Oct 01 2007
Michael Zey wonders whether the new reforms proposed by presidential candidates will not stifle choice at a time when US citizens are just discovering that travelling abroad for surgery is cheap, (almost) fun and offers excellent quality surgery and treatments for often half the cost of surgery at home and at a better deal as well.
Oct 01 2007
The US FDA has decided that clinical trials are not subject to the sort of oversight that patients and doctor think that they are. The F.D.A. has only 200 inspectors, some of whom audit clinical trials on a part time basis. These 200 police an estimated 350,000 testing sites!! Even when these inspectors did find issues, management downgraded their results on 68% of the time.
Much of the US doctors criticism of medical tourism is that there is no proper oversight. What this report makes clear is that even in the US, oversight is lax, poor or non-existent.
Oct 01 2007
Useful way to see Lap-Band surgery is to see it as a tool for reducing weight. I particularly like the comment that “surgery does about one-third of the work and the patient does about two-thirds of the work,” which reminds patients that this is an aid to help them change their behaviours rather than a solution which allows the patient to continue as before.
This is a key requirement that patients need to address before they plan to undergo weight-loss surgery.
Oct 01 2007
As if it was news to anybody, the UK Guardian newspaper reports on the growing number of UK citizens fleeing the crisis in publicly funded dentistry by travelling to the East for their dentistry.
People are travelling for necessary but expensive dentistry or in pursuit of cosmetic changes - the better smile. The key treatment is probably dental implants which are very expensive in the UK and at least 50-70 percent cheaper as you travel to central Europe. The most popular centre is Hungary where a single dental implant might cost around £520.
However, the numbers quoted are very small (20,000) against the overall population and one can only assume that growth is going to be huge in the next few years.
Oct 01 2007
Australia’s Sunday Morning Herald has an article on australian patients who are victims of failed cosmetic procedures in Thailand and Malaysia.
The clear picture is that medical tourists need to look very carefully at doctors skills and think very carefully at what they have done.
However, the article fails to mention the number of complications arising out of local surgery and also does not make clear how many patients have been effected by such complications from travel abroad.