A 20-strong team of keynote and industry speakers at the Medical Travel World Congress 2008 delivered a succession of presentations and case studies.
They included top management from medical providers – such as Malaysia’s Island Hospital, Prince Court Medical Centre, and Subang Jaya Medical Centre, Thailand’s Bumrungrad Hospital, Singapore’s Parkway, India’s Wockhardt Hospitals and UAE’s Jebel Ali Hospital and The West Clinic International – as well as government-industry organisations, academics and authors.
Organised by Magenta Global and held in Kuala Lumpur for the first time, the two-day conference at Crowne Plaza Mutiara Hotel attracted close to 150 attendees mostly from Asia, as well as Africa, Europe and the US. They represented hospitals, travel facilitators and agents, medical spa operators, insurance providers, clinical research laboratories, healthcare regulators, embassies/trade commission, tourism boards and government agencies.
The conference participants IMTJ spoke to hailed it a success. Christine Leong, key account manager of Sunway Medical Centre, said: “The congress was an excellent platform for all healthcare industry members to share their views and concerns on healthcare globalisation. The speakers were good and the contents and topics were interesting and valuable. There were also great opportunities for networking. I particularly liked the CEO talk show, candid discussions on medical liability and accreditation issues.”
Added Katy Hanna Pugh, senior consultant from the US-based Small World Consultants, which specialises in healthcare systems improvement and accreditation: “I enjoyed the topics about marketing and branding, as well as the presentation by Dr Jacob Thomas (of SJMC Healthcare Group on “Benchmarking for healthcare excellence”), which included data that had been collected in the past by Arthur Andersen and Ernst & Young. I have a special interest in data and quality, so I was glad to see some actual data. This type of data will be important as this market moves forward.”
Josef Woodman, author of Patients Beyond Borders and keynote address speaker, said: “Speaking as an attendee and not a speaker, I found it [the congress] to be the most useful I’ve yet attended in Asia. Our firm conducted a good deal of business, closed two large deals, and paved the way for future business with many new faces in the crowd.” He also said that in the future he hoped to see “more of an incorporation of medical travel into the larger context of global healthcare [and] more breakout sessions”.
Conference topics ranged from quality, patient safety and risk management, to liability and malpractice, to benchmarking for healthcare. Full-day pre-conference workshops, panel discussions and hospital visits were other highlights.
The next congress is scheduled to take place in Singapore from February 23 to 26 and will be called “Global Healthcare 2009: Crossing International Borders”.
Maggie Tan, CEO of Singapore-based Magenta Global, said: “We are on the brink of a new wave on global care options. Medical Travel World Congress will be renamed Global Healthcare to reflect this new dynamism in the industry.” The event will become the official conference of the International Medical Travel Association.