Sixteen winners of the IMTJ Medical Travel Awards 2020 were announced at an online ceremony on September 23rd. Judged by an independent panel of international experts, hospitals and clinics across Malaysia, South Korea, Greece, Austria, the UK and Lebanon were recognised for their new initiatives and excellence in the sector. A new award for this year, Outstanding Response to Covid, was won by the Korea Health Industry Development Institute (KHIDI).
While the IMTJ Medical Travel Summit 2020 has been postponed until Spring 2021, IMTJ still wanted to celebrate those outstanding destinations and healthcare providers who have demonstrated their excellence in the medical travel sector. Last week, the IMTJ Medical Travel Awards Ceremony 2020 was held live online, where 16 winners and three highly commended awards were announced.
“We had hoped to be in Madrid for the Awards this year, but this was not to be”, said ceremony host and IMTJ Editor in Chief, Keith Pollard. “The quantity and quality of the 2020 awards entries has been excellent however. We thank our panel of judges and our sponsors Western Union, IODM and Medical Korea, for their continued support, particularly in these challenging times. Congratulations to all winners, highly commended and finalists this year”.
The IMTJ Medical Travel Award 2020 winners were:
Commenting on their awards, Sherene Azli, CEO of MHTC stated: “We are immensely honoured to be bestowed with two awards by IMTJ. It is a privilege to receive the ‘Destination of the Year’ and ‘Cluster of the Year’ awards yet again as it signifies the global trust in our country’s excellent healthcare travel infrastructure and exemplary patient journey experience which have been made possible thanks to the dedication and effort from all parties. This motivates us to further improve our service delivery and to keep the Malaysia Healthcare brand flying high. Our commitment in upholding Malaysia as the World’s Healthcare Marvel will never waver. While we work hand-in-hand with the Ministry of Health to ensure the stringent SOPs are closely followed as the safety of the public continues to be our topmost priority, we do look forward to the day when we are able to welcome healthcare travellers at full force to seek health and wellness treatments in Malaysia. Till then, we will continue to direct a more concentrated effort in driving sustainable industry growth for Malaysia to continually be recognised as the World’s Healthcare Marvel.”
In a reflection of the level of government support for medical travel in Malaysia, the country’s Health Director-General, Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, quickly congratulated the MHTC team for the awards, on Facebook.
Ruku Bibi, Business Development Manager at the Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals Specialist Care in the UK said that they were thrilled to have won the ‘Specialist International Patient Centre’ Award this year. “Every day international patients choose to come to our hospitals for the exact same reason: to be seen by the world’s leading experts in heart and lung care. What they also discover, no matter their treatment journey, we’ll be close by their side, reassuring and guiding them every step of the way - as we have been for over a 100 years.”
“I could not be more proud of how far we have come to support international patients in these challenging times”, says Lukasz Rzeczkowski, Founder of Trustedoctor, whose technology platform helped The London Clinic to win the ‘Best use of technology in medical tourism’ Award. On hearing of their win, the London Clinic stated, “Accessibility is key to our patients feeling completely secure in their hospital care and we have worked hard to achieve this through our digital healthcare strategy. Hosted by Trustedoctor, 'Connect' enables our patients to have appointments with world-class consultants, therapists and healthcare professionals, from the comfort of their own homes – across the globe. Being able to provide access to a digitised network of our medical experts is fundamental. Now more than ever, during these challenging times, making healthcare more accessible is crucial. Thank you to the IMTJ for selecting us, and to everyone who has helped make this innovative new service a success.”
The full list winners, highly commended and finalists for the IMTJ Medical Travel Awards 2020 can be found here.
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