Medical tourism agencies take operations overseas

Complex surgery is the latest service to move offshore - and clever businesses are helping cost-conscious patients go under the knife overseas.

Think globalization means little more than call centers in New Delhi? Then you haven't seen what happens when seriously large numbers of Americans, who spend more than $570 billion at U.S. hospitals annually, start taking health-care holidays in far cheaper climes. Nor have you seen how much money there is to be made by helping them get there

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The Medical Vacation

First Quality of Life Survey Among Laser Eye Surgery

State-of-the-art hospitals from Bangkok to Cape Town are luring American travelers with low prices and packages that include side trips to local attractions. But are they safe? Louisa Kamps reports

Spurred by the fertility success stories she read about on IVF Connections' Web site, Jennifer Leeds* made plans to visit the Instituto Valenciano de Infertilidad (I.V.I.), in Valencia, Spain

Colombia - guns, drugs and fun

When it comes to tough sells for a vacation, it doesn’t get much tougher than Colombia. The South American country has a well-earned reputation for gun-toting guerrillas, cocaine kingpins and the world’s highest kidnapping rate.

But, after decades of being shunned as too dangerous for travellers, the country is riding an unprecedented tourist boom.

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FRUSTRATED WITH THE US HEALTHCARE SYSTEM WE HAVE ANSWERS !!!

Today amidst our national healthcare crisis, ideas are emerging. Americans are traveling overseas for healthcare. Perhaps you've heard of the rich and famous going for plastic surgery but now we're talking about the rest of us going abroad for hip replacement and heart surgery.

Complete Makeover, Colombian Style

New Surgery Packages lure Tourists to Colombia

Have you ever considered a package holiday that included an extreme makeover or plastic surgery as well as five star luxuries and a city tour?

So, how about going away for a two week break and coming back slimmer, younger looking, with brilliantly white teeth or with a full head of hair or no longer relying on glasses?

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Offshore for Health Care

After going overseas to outsource everything from manufacturing to customer services, American businesses - pressed by rising healthcare costs - are looking offshore for medical benefits as well

A growing number of employers that fund their own health insurance plans are looking into sending ailing employees abroad for surgeries that in the US cost tens of thousands of dollars more.

Confidence soars in Colombia

Los Angeles Times Service Colombia at a glance

BOGOTA - To say 2006 was a good year for the Colombian economy is to describe native pop phenomenon Shakira as a reasonably successful singer.

With exports, confidence and investment soaring, economic output here could finish 2006 having grown 6.3 percent from 2005, a full point above the robust expansion projected for all of Latin America.

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QUALITY OF LIFE IMPROVED THROUGH LASER EYE SURGERY

First Quality of Life Survey Among Laser Eye Surgery

Patients Demonstrates High Satisfaction, Improved Daily Routine and Overall Quality of Life

Fairfax, VA– The vast majority of Americans who had their vision corrected by laser surgery are highly satisfied with the results and said that the overall quality of their lives and daily routines has improved, according to the results of a Harris Interactive...

Before Lasik professional athletes had few choices

Zero tolerance? Wait a minute. If the andro that helped McGwire hit 70 home runs in 1998 was an unnatural, game-altering enhancement, what about his high-powered contact lenses? "Natural" vision is 20/20. McGwire's custom-designed lenses improved his vision to 20/10, which means he could see at a distance of 20 feet what a person with normal, healthy vision could see at 10 feet. Think what a difference that makes in hitting a fastball. Imagine how many games those lenses altered.

NEW TECHNOLOGY MAKES CLEARER, SHARPER VISION A REALITY IN 96 PERCENT OF LASIK SURGERIES

Several Major Studies Presented at American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery
Annual Symposium Point to Wavefront Technology as Future of Laser Eye Surgery

April 14, 2003 (San Francisco, CA) – After receiving wavefront-guided LASIK, a promising new technology...

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New “Custom” LASIK Individualizes Vision Correction Study Shows Better Quality Results of Wavefront-guided LASIK

San Diego, CA - An independent researcher reporting at the annual meeting of the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery (ASCRS) finds that “Custom” or Wavefront-guided LASIK produces superior vision quality compared to traditional LASIK eye surgery.

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Perfect Vision Is Helping and Hurting Navy

BETHESDA, Md., June 17 ¬ Almost every Thursday during the academic year, a bus carrying a dozen or so Naval Academy midshipmen leaves Annapolis for the 45-minute drive to Bethesda, where Navy doctors perform laser eye surgery on them, one after another, with assembly-line efficiency.

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Traveling afar to cut surgery costs

About 150,000 Americans seeking cheaper care joined the millions heading overseas for business or pleasure last year. Instead of an office or beach, they headed to the operating room for hip replacement or heart surgery.

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Sun, sea and scalpels (Bariatric)

Colombia has always had a lot to offer the tourist. Unfortunately, in recent years it has been the prospect of kidnappings, trigger-happy guerrillas, drug gangs and one-way trips into the Darien gap, writes Tom Lutz.

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