Business for a Lady, or My Life in Medical Tourism

© Tatiana Sokoloff, 2020

ISBN 978-5-4498-2901-6

Created with Ridero smart publishing system

Author’s Note

There is regrettably little literature on medical tourism. That’s what prompted me to share my experience in this field. I hope this book proves useful to anyone looking to open a medical tourism business.

Today lots of people get the wrong idea that medical tourism providers are a thing of the past. After all, all you have to do these days is go online, find a clinic that suits you, email a request, and travel to the clinic’s country. Sure enough, today that may seem par for the course – but there’s a but.

To make the right decision, one on which your life or the lives of your loved ones might depend, you need to know how things stand in the international medical-tourism market; which provider to approach about treating a particular disease; and which providers offer prices that meet your budget. I’ve been researching the medical-tourism market for more than twelve years. Over that span, I’ve traveled almost the whole world, keeping abreast of the latest treatment methods. Many of my clients complete their treatment successfully. It’s no coincidence that I am considered an expert in this field and that I often get invited to make speeches at medical-tourism conferences in Russia and in a variety of other countries.

I dedicate this book to my mother, Polina Borisovna Sadykhov, who was my spiritual mentor and took care of raising my daughter to give me time to pursue my favorite occupation.

Foreword

Would you like for your job to be something you were passionate about and to benefit others?

Would you like to travel the world without paying a penny?

Would you like to work remotely – at home, at a hotel, on a plane – whenever is convenient to you, instead of in your office nine to five?

If so, then this book is for you.

As a kid, I dreamed of helping people – namely, of curing them of scary diseases such as cancer. I didn’t make scientific discoveries in this field, but I approached my dream in a different way.

I will never forget what an instructor for an entrepreneurship course I attended in Israel once said: the world’s population is made up of the entrepreneurial and the employed, with the former accounting for only ten percent of the total. Even back then I clearly understood what I was, and I couldn’t imagine myself working for an employer. I was raring to come up with and try ideas and take risks, deriving great pleasure from the process.

Thus began my life in the business world, which later on led me to the interesting and promising niche of medical tourism.

Today I own a successful medical-tourism company and travel around the world, giving talks as an expert speaker at medical tourism conferences in and outside Russia.

Chapter One. Introduction: Medical Tourism – How It All Began…

Medical tourism refers to the practice of providing medical services outside the patient’s home system – in another region or in another country. Often, it involves traveling abroad both for recreation and for highly qualified medical care.

Medical tourism also includes health-resort treatment and treatment for serious diseases abroad when the patient’s home country cannot provide the necessary treatment or wait times for healthcare are long, as well as solutions to a variety of aesthetic problems. In recent years, medical tourism has been increasingly in demand, bringing in billions of dollars in revenue to the countries investing in its development.

Let’s look at the reasons why people go for treatment abroad.

There are seven of them:

· Service quality

· Price (it can be lower than in the patient’s home country)

· Higher service level

· Availability (no wait times)

· Medical plus vacation travel

· Confidentiality

· More flexible legislation (e.g., stem-cell treatments are banned in some countries and not in others)

But, needless to say, treatment quality is the key reason.