Ahmedabad

Ahmedabad’s leading Doctors, Dentists, Hospital Administrators attended India’s First Ever Medical Tourism Bootcamp in Ahmedabad organized by Kosansh Health Solutions at MICA Campus, Shela Ahmedabad.

According to Kosansh CEO – Roshan Shah – ‘“Bootcamp” is like booting up your system and taking the first step. Many talk about Medical Tourism but do not show practically how to market your offerings to international patients. In India – Chennai, Delhi and Hyderabad got major share of 500,000 medical tourists that visited India in 2008 and Ahmedabad and entire State of  Gujarat was nowhere in the as far as Medical Tourism destination is concerned. But this is going to change. Before the next Vibrant Gujarat summit of 2011, we want to show some real progress by Ahmedabad Doctors and Hospitals in area of Medical Tourism and Kosansh wants to bring in best team of facilitators, tour operators, doctors and hospitals to create various packages that can be marketed by Kosansh’

Medical Tourism Industry is one of the fastest growing industries today. According to Deloitte Center of Health Solutions 750,000 Americans traveled outside US to get medical treatment and an estimated 1.6 million could travel by 2012.

Thailand, which attracts highest Medical Tourism patients has solid foothold in the Industry and has been aggressively marketing their medical facilities, tourism spots, etc with great success. But India is fast catching up and Gujarat with its entrepreneurial spirits has all ingredients to take the center stage. 25% of 61,000 US Physicians of Indian Origin are Gujaratis.

The event had some very notable speakers. Dr. J. L. Meena (Sr. Quality Officer – Accreditation – Government of Gujarat) spoke on accreditation process and progress done by Gujarat. Gujarat government run hospitals and laboratories are today having state of art facilities and infrastructure compared to any private hospital. Gujarat has credit of having India’s 1st Government Hospital to get NABH accreditation and  1st Government Laboratory to get NABH accreditation. Gujarat Government is also in process of getting all hospitals accredited and Government has mobilized its people and resources with a very aggressive mandate in that direction.  Dr. Animish Chokshi of Krishna Heart Hospital shared his experiences in handling international patients. Krishna Heart Hospital has been receiving lot of patients from African countries.  Dr Ayyappan, a Sr. Cosmetic Surgeon – touched on subject of ‘Opportunities in Medical Tourism in Cosmetic Surgery’ while Dr. Sanjeev Mehta, promoter of ‘The Meditor’ spoke on Telemedicine and how can doctors consult remote patients via tele-medicine.

The sessions were very lively, interactive and were followed by a ‘hands-on’ workshop on Kosansh platform where doctors created their profiles on Kosansh and learnt tips on Social Medial Marketing. Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook  and Orkut were no longer jargons and everyone understood the importance that Web has to be the medium where Gujarat Medical Community has to get aggressive on.

The event also had attendees from Bharuch, Mumbai as well as Delhi. Event was sponsored by Isabelle Tours N Travels.

As a next step, event participants agreed to meet again in very near future to devise customized packages to promote their offerings. They also agreed to form a committee and mail a joint response to Government on what they think Gujarat should do to create an environment that makes Gujarat a leading Medical Tourism destination in India.

With one of the world’s most technologically advanced Medical Tourism Portal – Kosansh.com having its Corporate Office in Ahmedabad, it is just a matter of time before Gujarat emerges as No 1 Medical Tourism Destination in India.  All eyes are awaiting next Ahmedabad Bootcamp in January 2011 when ‘State of Medical Tourism in Gujarat’ will be presented and what measurable progress has been done from the last Bootcamp. Challenges are many – cultural change, training, training, training, improving ambience, doing good work and telling the world about good work we are doing in a very professional way is clearly the immediate agenda that everyone took from the event.