Medical Tourism or cross-border healthcare, global care, globally integrated care, medical travel, organ transplant tourism, dental tourism is discussed at Medical Writing Network - The Online Community for Medical and Health Writers .
The practice – cross-border health-care - is not new, and was very popular in ancient Rome and Greece when citizens traveled to other parts of the empire to visit spas, seek treatments, etc. In later days, it was also popular where one might travel to Colorado to tuberculosis sanatorium, or to warm weather climates to abate rheumatologic symptoms.
Recent studies published my McKinsey and Deloitte cite traffic into the US in 2008 at more than 400,000 non-US. residents who sought care in the United States, known as inbound medical tourism, and spent almost $5 billion for health services.
Not included in this calculation are the cases and revenues that came from other cities and states not typically included in a US providers' relevant geographic market.
More than 750,000 Americans (with enough cash to pay for the cost of their care and the travel expense) left the country last year to access less expensive or unavailable medical treatments, a number projected to grow to six million by 2010, potentially costing our US health care system billions.”
Americans primarily seek this sort of care for elective surgical procedures, but many are medically necessary and have no tourism or leisure component associated with the trip.
Mediracer UK Ltd. specializes in CTS = Carpal Tunnel Syndrome testing. The company recently opened a new office in Oxford, United Kingdom.
UK has been an important market for the medical technology company that started 2002. The CEO Veijo Lesonen told that their new UK operation now employs three experts.
- In addition to myself we have Product Manager Pasi Karsikas and Product Specialist Nick Hamer on board since August 16, 2010.
Mediracer is prospecting for an expanding market in the general health care segment. Mr. Lesonen says that the Mediracer Carpal Tunnel Syndrome testing system has already been adapted by fifty organizations in the field of special health care.
- The British health care system is going through fundamental changes and Mediracer wants to take part in this transformation with its point of care testing systems. We’re also launching a new option to test the ulnaris nerve, Veijo Lesonen explains.
The Ulnar Nerve
The ulnar nerve is one of the three main nerves in the arm. It travels from under the collarbone and along the inside of the upper arm. It passes through a tunnel of tissue (the cubital tunnel) behind the inside of the elbow.
- You can feel the nerve through the skin. It is commonly called the "funny bone”, says Mr. Veijo Lesonen.
This new measurement means that the Mediracer’s point of care device can be used to test eighty per cent of the nerve functions in the human hand.
The nerve travels under muscles on the inside of the arm and into the hand on the side of the palm with the little finger. As the nerve enters the hand, it travels through another tunnel (Guyon's canal).
According to the website “Your Orthopaedic Connection”, the nerve entrapment occurs when the ulnar nerve in the arm becomes compressed.
- When this happens, the nerve does not function normally, explains Veijo Lesonen.
The ulnar nerve functions to give sensation to the little finger and the half of the ring finger that is near the little finger. It also controls most of the little muscles in the hand that help with fine movements, and some of the bigger muscles in the forearm that help to make a strong grip.
UK is important
CEO Veijo Lesonen concludes that the UK market is an important testing ground for Mediracer UK Ltd.
- Finland and the Scandinavian countries combined are less than half of this single market. This is why we are investing in a customer support centre in Oxford, UK.
I’ve been doing Digital Storytelling for more than a decade. What new could be done in the field of medical electronics writing?
Digital has been growing exponentially for 15 years now. But where’s the education that supports further development? How many medical writers are there in the Finnish blogosphere blogging about the healthcare industry?
We could create a team blogging about a medical startups. In three months, the project team has to come up with an idea for a Web-based business support operation, pitch it to a venture capitalist and design a site.
Along with technology and creative skills, the program also needs to emphasize entrepreneurship. The digital platform is ubiquitous. Today, it’s just a part of everyone’s way of thinking and communicating and sharing, connecting, buying, doing business.
It’s probably the fastest-paced industry almost anybody could be in right now.
we can help to create digital marketing strategies for the medical industry
we want to transform a technology-focused approach to a practical, easy to handle working model
learning the newest technologies on the job takes time while digital content development is time-consuming
copywriters and art directors will help the teams to churn out portfolios of creative concepts
We’ve to ensure that the clients are getting what they needed to grow and develop, especially in areas that combine creative approaches and technology.
Here is about "adding and editing patient demographical data, medical prescription, medical images and graphs". Getting closer to what I'm looking for.
SpringerLink - Book Chapter: "The primary aim of this study is to look into the feasibility of developing a mobile patient data management system using ASP .Net technology. It was envisioned that medical personnel, by using any WAP-enabled devices, will not be restricted to a specified location in order to retrieve, add, or edit patient data. The current system has achieved its main objectives of adding and editing patient demographical data, medical prescription, medical images and graphs. The system has been designed to be backward and forward compatible; ensuring unlimited module expansion in the future."
Advancing medical breakthroughs will improve our well-being, control health spending and enable us to expand insurance coverage. These investments in energy and health care, as well as education, will revive the economy and create millions of well-paying new jobs for middle-class Americans.
It's a dazzling rhetorical vista that excites the young and fits the country's mood, which blames 'capitalist greed' for the economic crisis. Obama promises communal goals and a more widely shared prosperity. The trouble is that it may not work as well in practice as it does in Obama's speeches. Still, congressional Democrats press ahead to curb global warming and achieve near-universal health insurance. We should not be stampeded into far-reaching changes that have little to do with today's crisis.
What Obama proposes is a 'post-material economy.' He would de-emphasize the production of ever-more private goods and services, harnessing the economy to achieve broad social goals. In the process, he sets aside the standard logic of economic progress. "
WHEN Facebook signed up its 100 millionth member August 2009, its employees spread out in two parks in Palo Alto, Calif., for a huge barbecue. Sometime this week, this five-year-old start-up, born in a dorm room at Harvard, expects to register its 200 millionth user.
It's a pretty much different story to introduce medical technology innovations to the healthcare community. Highly specialized technology users and buyers don't yet gather on Facebook or use Social Media.
That's still the way traditional wisdom goes. However, the scene is changing quicker than we think. Facebook is a very young phenomenon and so is Ning and many other social media meeting places.
Traditional selling and distribution is very expensive for start-ups and technology innovators. They could benefit from a faster adaption and gathering around social media.
That staggering growth rate — doubling in size in just eight months — suggests Facebook is rapidly becoming the Web’s dominant social ecosystem and an essential personal and business networking tool in much of the wired world.
Electronic medical record systems are being touted as the wave of the future in health care and communication, but only 17 percent of U.S. doctors have embraced the technology, a new survey finds, according to Business Week. When you use a good definition of what a record system is, very few physicians appear to have one.
The definition of a fully functional electronic medical record system includes a patient's
complete medical records,
medication lists,
problems, and clinical notes from past visits.
The doctor can also order prescriptions, laboratory tests and radiology tests electronically. In addition, the doctor can review
lab results and view X-rays,
MRIs or other scans on the computer
There are also warnings about inappropriate prescriptions or abnormal lab results. And the systems remind the doctor when lab or screening tests are needed.
For the survey, DesRoches and her colleagues surveyed 2,758 doctors nationwide about their use of electronic medical record systems. The researchers found that 4 percent reported having a fully functional system. An additional 13 percent said they had a basic system.
The survey also found that primary care doctors and doctors with large practices or those in hospitals or medical centers were more likely to have electronic medical record systems. In addition, doctors in the western region of the United States were more likely to have such systems.
Both Medicare and private insurance companies are pushing doctors to adopt electronic medical record systems as a way of monitoring quality of care, which will be a basis for reimbursement levels, DesRoches noted.
There is an amazing body of work out there about global health. Books, websites, blogs, podcasts, videos – you can learn about any global health topic if you do a little digging. I write about health, wellness and welfare issues in English, Swedish and English.
I'm start to write a new collection of blog posts about global health and medical technology success stories. Hoping this becomes a blog you choose tom come back to when changing the world and adoption of innovation seems hopeless or fruitless.
Innovation doesn't come easy
It takes time to get acceptance
Disruptive innovations are a threat to outdated methods
Cost-saving and better quality are possible with innovative methods
I need to teach myself about health topics, or brush up on something I haven’t thought about in a while.
Any topic I need to know more about is here on the Internet. I can spend hours browsing, checking out about, pulmonary function measurement, carpal tunnel syndrome diagnostic methods, epidemiology, or the future of global health.
I work with a major strategy change. Blogging from "one to many" does only a part of the work. It's very important to get into a dialog with healthcare professionals around the world. We need more specific information about the national and regional differences.
What can we do or learn from these networks? There are plenty of them. First, it's important to find relevant forums that are in line with our goals. Second, we've to create content in these groups and forums that is relevant for the readers. Blogs can be used as input tools.
Talk Medical says, "Please feel free to use this service to post relevant news from your organization or company, post events you are involved in or feel would be of interest to the wider community, blog to your heart's content on current health issues, whether they be mainstream news or the latest journal articles or simply just health stories you'd like to share with the world."
Ultimately the more we all use Talk Medical, the more useful it will become for all.
Since long, 2004 or something like that, I decided to enter the blogosphere and start penning down my thoughts. What started as a random and sporadic writing, has lead to a systematic use of Web 2.0 applications for business purposes. I have been since 2006 a medical blogger.
Believe me, anonymity has got its own advantages, but that's not the case for companies with great products and or services. They need to get out their message. Many companies are anonymous or very little known on Internet.
Nevertheless, blogs and social media doesn't solve all the business 2.0 and enterprise 2.0 communication problems. The big issue is, however, how to reach the decision makers, potential buyers, thought leaders, early adopters, innovative change agents.
What are your thoughts?
This blog started with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome as the main topic. We're now redesigning the outlook and focusing on aspects that we think are of interest for the medical and healthcare community.
We want to talk with doctors, nurses, specialists and administrators
We are looking for new partners to sell diagnostic devices and methods
We're going to start a Medical Network for collaboration
The goal is to get into talking terms with global players in the field of medical technology and innovations. More about this in the coming weeks.
It's important to learn more about the differences in national and regional markets
Getting closer to people and decision makers eager to make changes and improvements
Finding people and organizations who are ready for change and innovation
Change management and bridge building are not easy tasks, but we learn by doing.
This blogger writes about medicare in United States. There is some similarities in the language. There are problems in some areas here on the old continent as well. Smaller cities with health care units have difficulties to attract doctors. I learned about Dr. Robert M. Centor through Twitter - a microblogging service: "Any attempt to make health care more accessible will fail without improving primary care http://twurl.nl/htt1my5:40 PM Dec 12thfrom Tweetburner."
db is the nickname for Dr. Robert M. Centor. db stand both for Dr. Bob and da boss. Thus, my golfing buddies nicknamed me db (for Dr. Bob) and my colleagues also nicknamed me db (for da boss).
I am an academic general internist at the University of Alabama School of Medicine. I serve as the Division Director of General Internal Medicine in Birmingham and as the Associate Dean for the Huntsville Regional Medical Campus of UASOM. I also serve as a frequent ward attending at the Birmingham VA Hospital.
This blog represents my thoughts and in no way represents any of my employers.
“There was a tremendous amount of disenchantment, frustration, all bordering around one thing,” Tim Norbeck, the executive director of the Physicians’ Foundation, said of the survey. 'Doctors feel they can’t spend enough time with their patients because of the paperwork and red tape hassles.”
Mr. Norbeck added: “Physicians went into medicine to spend more time with their patients, and that time has just been eroding. There’s serious reason to believe that there won’t be enough doctors to cover people sooner than we thought.”
Regular readers of this blog will recall how often I emphasize time. As a physician our only currency is time. Whenever we are not seeing patients, we are not making money.
We have the confluence of many undesirable problems. Unfortunately, we can trace many problems back to the creation of a government bureaucracy - Medicare.
Please follow my argument before you start your commentary. Medicare provides a wonderful benefit to patients. Health care is expensive. The price of health care has increased much faster than income. (Please note that I chose the word price her than cost.)
Because prices are increasing, Medicare has tried classic bureaucratic techniques to minimize expenses. Our billing system requires extensive documentation. If we do not document well, then we are not paid appropriately. "
Bio:Government-controlled health care systems promote longer wait times, reduced quality of care and denials of coverage.
Let's get back to DB's blog. Dr. Robert M. Centor writes about his blog that has been around for quite some time. Since 2002. It would be interesting to know how many blogging doctors we have in the Nordic Countries. I know that a few do it UK, Germany, all around Europe but the numbers aren't big. Medicare is an information intensive activity or industry. It would be nice to know more medical bloggers.
On May 19th, 2002 I started this blog. I had become fascinated with the concept of blogging. Prior to starting this blog, I played with a non-medical blog.
One day I stumbled upon Medpundit, and immediately thought that I would enjoy creating my own medical blog - hence db’s Medical Rants.
The tenor of the blog has changed over time. Originally, I did much more linking and less philosophizing. Over the years I seem to enjoy writing short essays.
My opinions are my own. I hope that I make readers think. Many readers write comments either when they agree or disagree. I find that interaction healthy.
Thanks for visiting my personal place to rant and pontificate.
A U.S. shortage of 35,000 to 40,000 primary care physicians by 2025 was predicted at last week's American Medical Association annual meeting.
In the survey, the foundation sent questionnaires to more than 270,000 primary care doctors and more than 50,000 specialists nationwide.
Of the 12,000 respondents, 49 percent said they'd consider leaving medicine. Many said they are overwhelmed with their practices, not because they have too many patients, but because there's too much red tape generated from insurance companies and government agencies.
This is a model for the new world order for e.g. Medical Diagnostics information distribution. What do you think? How much of Mediracer information distribution, business generation and customer support could take place over the Internet? Social Media and Medical Health & Economics could take advantage of new business and operating models.
We've been talking about how many doctors do blog in Finand, Scandinavia, UK, Europe. Blogging has been popular in US for a longer time. Corporate blogs aren't a phenomenon in Euroep yet. Blogging has been a geek thing. Today I found this popular blog from UK. I hope the presentation is within the lines for copyright. I'll write a comment on Dr. Grippens blog and ask for permission.
NHS Blog Doctor: "Operations cancelled as NHS runs out of money | Nigel Hawkes, Health Editor.
NHS BLOG DOCTOR
NHS BLOG DOCTOR is written by Dr Crippen who is a British doctor practising within the NHS. All comments, suggestions, and criticisms are welcome either at the end of each post, or by direct e-mail.
The articles in NHS BLOG DOCTOR are often of a light hearted nature and must not be used as a basis for medical treatment. Dr Crippen gets a large number of e-mails from the UK and abroad. He is always interested to hear of healthcare experiences, and grateful for any stories, information or even "tip-offs" that you may wish to contribute. Please keep them coming.
• Patients told to wait for routine treatment • Casualty staff asked to turn people away
a primary care trust in Yorkshire has told hospitals that they will not be paid for some non-essential operations, while patients will not be given a hospital appointment in under eight weeks.
And from North Yorkshire PCT:
No patients will be given a hospital appointment in less than eight weeks, and none admitted for elective surgery unless they have waited a minimum of 12 to 16 weeks. Those treated quicker will not be paid for.
The trust also announced the immediate suspension of treatments for varicose veins, wisdom teeth, X-rays of the back, operations for carpal tunnel syndrome, bunions, arthroscopy of the knee, and grommets for the ear, among others. “We fully appreciate the difficulties that the introduction of these measures entail,'
And finally:
Thousands of doctors qualified to become consultants could face unemployment instead, the NHS says. A leaked copy of the Government’s pay and workforce strategy reveals that by 2011 there will be 3,200 more consultants than there are jobs."
THE BRITMEDS
Medical blogging used to be primarily an American phenomenon but then throughout 2006 more and more British medical blogs appeared. Some are not getting the attention they deserve. Dr Crippen wants to do something about that and so he is going to publish a weekly round-up of the best of British Medical Blogs
Please, click on the flag to send your recommendations of any British medically related internet writing that you feel deserves a wider audience to THE BRIT MEDS
The contents of NHS BLOG DOCTOR are strictly the copyright of the author and all rights are reserved. Other bloggers are welcome to quote and use any of the content of the articles on the internet or in their own blogs but, please, mention NHS BLOG DOCTOR when you do.
Short quotes for comment or review are welcome in print, but anyone wishing to use substantial parts or all of any of the articles is asked to contact NHS BLOG DOCTOR in advance.
Helge: Blogging is still a new thing. Corporate blogging is emerging. This CTS blog has been around for four months. We write about a narrow segment in health care. Mediracer is an innovation that has been tested and awarded in UK. This hand-held device could be used for rapid and cost-effective diagnosis of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. The University Hospital in Leicester uses Mediracer successfully.
Founded in 2002 in Oulu, Finland, Mediracer Ltd specialises in medical technology. The company’s core business is the development, manufacture and global sales of Point of Care (POC) diagnostic testing equipment for diseases of the peripheral nervous system. POC analysis equipment makes treatment processes faster and easier, and therefore also extremely cost-efficient.
Mediracer Ltd’s operations are supported by an expanding international network of medical, healthcare and technology partners.
Mediracer is a superior and leading company in the world ofresearch, development and sales forPoint of Care Diagnostic devices and services, assisting physicians in their clinical work.
Innovative Mediracer Methods will be Golden Standards in the future.
Helge: I try to figure what kind of software could be used to make a self-diagnosis of carpal tunnel syndrome. What are you mediracers thinking about the idea? Please, let me have your comments.
Med School Goes Web 2.0 With Virtual Cadavers: "A company called A.D.A.M . has created interactive software that is now required for many med school students, called A.D.A.M. Interactive Anatomy and Interactive Physiology software.
Having this software is the technological equivalent of carrying a fresh cadaver around in your backpack all day to learn on, without the more gruesome aspects of anatomy class. Sure, it is important for medical students to eventually work with the real thing and not a computer simulation, no matter how realistic it may be.
As it turns out, cadavers are surprisingly difficult to come by, and easy to destroy while learning. It seems the popularity of donating your body to science has waned over the years, and legal problems can often prohibit using undonated cadavers from other sources."
Making the successful medical sales is what we are planning for.
Due to shrinking pipelines and rising financial pressures on medical devices companies, indication expansion is an increasingly attractive strategy to expand patient potential and extend market exclusivity.
This video is a humorous new report that provides in-depth case studies analyzing successful recent indication of emerging trends in field sales and marketing.
This report will enable you to avoid potential pitfalls whilst gaining a comprehensive review of how to delay generic competition and boost revenue growth.
Use the case studies in this video to identify best practice examples of indication expansion strategies and ensure that you can implement these into your current processes to maximize the lifecycle of your products.
What a wonderful online world we live in. Let us know, what you think about the perfect sales call. Have fun, sales is not a serious business! It's a way to make you a millionaire.
Digital Villages: Yes, we are looking for people who like to do the happy selling on a global scale. There is a lot to do. Mediracing has started 20 years ago with research and development. It's time to go for the global sales. Would you like to be a part of the organization?
Good morning Veijo Lesonen, I'd like to talk with you about the Medical Futures Innovation Award. Congratulations. When did you get the award?
"We got the best orthopedic diagnostic method innovation award in June 2007 and in London," Veijo Lesonen, the Finnish neurophysilogist and managing director of Mediracer Ltd. confirms.
The showcase of the 2007 Medical Futures Innovation Awards took place at a prestigious venue in central London. Hosted by Joanna Lumley and Rory Bremner it was a fantastic event attended by over 750 distinguished guests, truly a Who's Who of health care.
Medical Tourism or cross-border healthcare, global care, globally integrated care, medical travel, organ transplant tourism, dental tourism is discussed at Medical Writing Network - The Online Community for Medical and Health Writers . 
