"Medical Tourism : Travel sickness.."

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Picture the scene: you wake up and jump on the scales before starting the day. On the way to the kitchen, your iPhone beeps and advises you that data from the scales indicates you have gained weight and you need to exercise more this week. Another message then indicates during the night your heart rate implied you may need to lay off the fatty foods today too. On the way to work, you get a phone call from your doctor telling you he has reviewed the latest data from the pacemaker you had fitted last year in Berlin. “No need to worry, but perhaps you should pop in,” he says.
This may sound like the latest Hollywood blockbuster or some futuristic science fiction vision, but it is actually happening right now and is the reality of the modern healthcare system in Germany.
All German citizens have healthcare coverage and therefore it has one of the highest densities of hospitals in the world, almost twice that in the US where few citizens get free healthcare. In a bid to reduce the burden on the system, telemedicine has become the latest German craze. This involves monitoring patients’ bodily functions and only those in need of medical treatment are called in for further consultation.
For example, ten years ago Berlin-based company Biotronik developed a pacemaker system that has a monitoring device built into it and each day while the patient is sleeping, data on how their heart is performing is sent via a wireless connection to the nearest hospital. The local doctor analyses the results to check for any potential cardiac ailments that might need attention.
Similarly, fellow Berlin company Getemed supplies devices for newborn children with an in-built alarm system which activates if the infant is in medical distress. It also offers heart monitors and telemonitoring devices which are integrated into weighing scales. The cumulative medical data is wired over the internet to a local doctor who keeps a daily watch on the user’s condition.
The devices are currently only offered to patients who already have serious heart conditions and are sold to hospitals and medical institutions. They can also be sold to private patients who simply want to take a preventative approach to their healthcare.
Biotonik reports that their futuristic pacemakers have become popular in the Gulf, especially Qatar, and Getemed isthis month in Dubai hoping to attract potential Arab clients who want to have a more proactive approach to their healthcare.
Such medical advances explain why the German healthcare system is considered one of the best in the world and why the Saudi German Hospitals Group (SGHG), considered the Gulf’s largest private healthcare provider, decided to adopt their approach to healthcare. As a result of the growing popularity of German healthcare, Berlin-based Vivantes International Medicine, the largest state-owned hospital chain in Europe, last year saw a 100 percent rise in the number of Middle East patients and treated around 1000 Arab patients from around the world. The majority came from Saudi Arabia and Dr Andreas Schmitt, general manager of Vivantes International says lifestyle illnesses, such as obesity and diabetes, are common ailments for Arab patients and issues such as strokes, tumors and heart defects are the main reasons why treatment is needed.
Travelling from the Middle East for healthcare is not a new phenomenon but it is big business. The term used in the profession is medical tourism and the World Bank indicates that the sector is already a $6bn worldwide business and is set to grow further with the globalisation of the healthcare industry.
According to 'Patients beyond Borders', considered to be a definitive reference guide to medical tourism, around 28 different countries are competing across four continents for more than two million patients who each year visit hospitals and clinics in countries other than their own.
The UAE is a prominent player as, according to recent surveys by the Healthcare Travel Congress, patients from the UAE spend around $2bn on medical tourism each year.
While Berlin is after a slice of this, it is still early days for it. Figures from VisitBerlin, the city’s tourism marketing authority, show that in the first ten months of last year 16,347 Arabs visited the German city. While this was a rise of 6.6 percent, Arabs only represent about five percent of the total number of foreign visitors to the city.
Hospitals such as the German Heart Institute Berlin and the Heart Centre Brandenburg agree with Vivantes’ estimation that Arab visitors are on the rise, even though they currently only represent about one or two percent of the total number of patients treated.
There are a number of reasons why this is increasing, says Thomas Hohn, the head of administration at the German Heart Institute Berlin. Firstly, increased visa restrictions in the US after the September 11 terrorist attacks saw a dramatic drop in turnover for the American healthcare system as Arabs and other foreigners began to look elsewhere for their healthcare.
It is estimated that between 2002 and 2003 turnover dropped by as much as $700m. Further visa restrictions in the wake of the attempted Christmas Day suicide bombing in 2009 has seen the number of Arabs choosing Europe over the US increase, says Hohn. The new Berlin-Brandenburg airport due to open in June 2012 and the starting of direct flights from Dubai to Berlin will also help increase numbers, he adds.