จากการติดต่อของทีมงานจัด workshop แห่งหนึ่ง ผมเลยคิดว่า น่าจะถึงเวลาที่ผมควรทำอะไรบางอย่าง

ก่อนอื่นผมขอคัดลอกและทำความเข้าใจกับคำว่า "Medical Tourism" จาก http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_tourism

Medical tourism (also called medical travel or health tourism) is a term initially coined by travel agencies and the mass media to describe to the rapidly-growing practice of traveling to another country to obtain health care.

Such services typically include elective procedures as well as complex specialized surgeries such as joint replacement (knee/hip), cardiac surgery, dental surgery, and cosmetic surgeries. The provider and customer use informal channels of communication-connection-contract, with less regulatory or legal oversight to assure quality and less formal recourse to reimbursement or redress, if needed.

Leisure aspects typically associated with travel and tourism may be included on such medical travel trips.

น่าสนใจทีเดียว เพราะหลายๆประเทศเริ่มหารายได้เข้าประเทศจาก Medical Tourism

แต่ประเทศไทย คล้ายๆ จะริเริ่มให้เป็นระบบ (ลองอ่านข้างล่าง) ผมเองก็พยายามหาช่องทางที่จะใช้ความรู้ความสามารถทาง Leisure Management  เข้าไปพูดคุยกับหน่วยงานที่เกี่ยวข้อง แต่ก็ยัง "มืดมัว...อยากทำแต่ไม่รู้ว่าจะกล้าไปคุยกับใครอย่างไร" ขอเวลาตั้งตัวอีกซักนิดครับ หรือเพื่อนๆผู้อ่านมีแนวทางอย่างไร ช่วยดอกเตอร์มือใหม่ด้วยครับผม จักเป็นพระคุณอย่างยิ่ง

Medical tourism is a growing segment of Thailand's tourism and health-care sectors. Lower labor costs translate into significant cost savings on procedures compared to hospitals in the United States, and a higher, more personalized level of nursing care than westerners are accustomed to receiving in hospitals back home. Over one million people per year travel there for everything from cosmetic surgery to cutting edge cardiac treatment.[citation needed] In 2005, one Bangkok hospital took in 150,000 treatment seekers from abroad. In 2006, medical tourism was projected to earn the country 36.4 billion baht.[10]

One patient who received a coronary artery bypass surgery at Bumrungrad International hospital in Bangkok said the operation cost him US$12,000, as opposed to the $100,000 he estimated the operation would have cost him at home.[11]

Hospitals in Thailand are a popular destination for other Asians. Another hospital that caters to medical tourists, Bangkok General Hospital, has a Japanese wing and Phyathai Hospitals Group has interpreters for over 22 languages, besides the English-speaking medical staff. When Nepal Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala needed medical care in 2006, he went to Bangkok.[12]

English is widely spoken in Thailand, one reason why it is such a popular tourism destination. Bumrungrad International Hospital makes much of the fact that many of its staff are accredited in the UK, Europe and the U.S. The origins of the U.S. medical system are British, with the American Medical Association acknowledging that Manchester Physician Dr Thomas Percival is responsible for modern medical ethics, and even the founder of Harvard University, John Harvard, was born in Southwark, London. The modern Thai medical system shares in this Anglo-U.S. inheritance, as Prince Mahidol of Songla, the King's father, earned his MD degree from Harvard Medical School in the early 20th century. Prince Mahidol and another member of the Thai Royal Family paid for an American medical education for a group of Thai men and women. Prince Mahidol also convinced the Rockefeller Foundation to provide scholarships for Thai citizens to study medicine and nursing. Funds from the Rockefeller Foundation were also used to help build modern medical training facilities in Thailand. The men and women who studied medicine and nursing as a result of Prince Mahidol's efforts became the first educators for the modern Thai medical system.

Today many Thai physicians hold U.S. or UK professional certification. Seveal Thai hospitals have relationships with educational facilities in the U.S. and UK (for example, Sheffield Hallam University has links with Bangkok}. The U.S. consular information sheet gives the Thai health care system high marks for quality, particularly facilities in Bangkok. The UK's Foreign and Commonwealth Office web site states "There are excellent international hospitals in Bangkok but they can be expensive".

Thailand has a modern infrastructure, with clean, safe streets. Thailand offers everything from cardiac surgery to organ transplants at a price much lower than the U.S. or Europe, in a safe, clean environment.

However, there is indisputably a major HIV/AIDS problem in Thailand, as acknowledged by the World Health Organisation and dengue is becoming increasingly common.

Thailand has a growing number of hospitals with JCAHO accreditation. Again, international hospital accreditation may be one way for hospitals to demonstrate their worth, and increasingly Thai hospitals competing for business in this sector may need to expand their international accreditation.