06-Dec-16 With promotion and publicity focused on China, Thailand has strong potential to lure very-rich Chinese. Singapore has the edge over Thailand by way of its Mandarin-speaking skills. Some 483,000 people travelled from China for medical tourism in 2015. They spent USD6.3 bn on treatment and USD3.4 bn on travel and accommodation, making outbound Chinese medical tourism a USD9.7 bn business. [image: Bangkok Post]

11-Dec-16 As more patients in Malaysia opt for public hospitals, patient volume in private hospitals has dropped 20-30%. With medical inflation expected to be 15% in 2017, private hospitals must find ways of coping with falling revenue. Charges will go up when private hospitals can no longer contain their costs within reasonable limits. [image: The Star]

09-Dec-16 Carl Zeiss Meditec reported its fiscal 2016 earnings rose to EUR154 mn from EUR131 mn a year ago. The EBIT margin increased to 14.2 percent from 12.6 percent. Asia/Pacific revenue climbed 19.5 percent, mainly attributable to the Chinese market, as well as Southeast Asia and South Korea. [image: Carl Zeiss Meditec]

09-Dec-16 Globally, the number of older persons is forecast to exceed 2 bn by 2050, by when nearly two-thirds will be living in Asia-Pacific, and one in four people across the region will be over 60. More than 20 countries in Asia-Pacific have adopted national policies to deal with ageing, but many others have yet to do so. And implementation must be strengthened. [image: Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat 2008 revision]

09-Dec-16 A HKD6.3 bn (USD812 mn) private hospital to be run by the Chinese University - envisioned as Hong Kong's first not-for-profit and self-financed teaching hospital - will offer 70% of its services in fixed packages to cater for the middle class, plus specialist quotas for Hospital Authority patients. The 619-bed hospital is to be commissioned in 2020. [image: The Standard]