New estimates for Medical Travel traffic?

So who is right? Two powerful consulting groups came up with very different endpoint assessments for the industry analysis.

There are two widely disparate assessments on the size and activity of the medical tourism markets.
The links to the original articles are:

http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Mapping_the_market_for_travel_2134_abstract
http://www.deloitte.com/dtt/article/0%2C1002%2Ccid%25253D217866%2C00.html

It is critical to read and understand how each organization defines the traveler for medical care. There appears to be too much investment and construction in the areas of infrastructure and capacity for medical tourism to be justified by the lower boundary defined by The McKinsey Group(TMG) assessment. The Deloitte article may overshoot the actual number. One reasonable conclusion is that the truth is somewhere in the middle of the two.

Going forward, this will continue to be a new growth arena for leaders to enter. Challenges exist in changing mindsets and biases, to which incentives and marketing will be critical. Already large industry forces are moving to create incentives to ease the transition to get elective and semi-elective healthcare outside the US. This is beginning to look similar to several recent 'disruptive technological shifts'.

This means the paradigm, our current structure of thinking, will be changed dramatically. Acute care medicine will still be practiced locally. But opportunities to move many aspects of care abroad exist. Radiology is moving in that direction, pathology, lab specimen processing, procedures, annual visits and much, much more.

What would make you, a US healthcare consumer, interested in seeking care outside the US?
What would prevent you, a US healthcare consumer, interested in seeking care outside the US?

We would enjoy to have a dialogue. Feel free to submit your comments and suggestions.


Jim McCormick MD
Premiere Medical Travel
Be Well, Travel Safe