21-Aug-14 The Chinese government has said it will pursue policies explicitly designed to favour domestic medical equipment manufacturers over foreign ones. The move accelerates the trend of foreign medical device manufacturers acquiring or joint venturing with Chinese companies, as well as moving additional medical device manufacturing capacity from their home countries to China.

3-Aug-14 Alibaba affiliate Alipay has announced many Chinese hospitals now accept Alipay for registering, paying for services and even checking clinical test results using a mobile device. Alipay is also planning to integrate EMR functionality into its platform.

22-Jul-14 Korea is one of the most rapidly ageing countries - currently it has the third lowest dependency ratio (economically active people per elderly person) of 5.26, behind only Mexico and Chile, but this will jump to only 1.96 by 2036 - the fifth highest - with huge implications for healthcare and all aspects of medtech.

04-Jun-14 India's Ministry of Health is hoping to achieve remote consultation, diagnosis and treatment through tele-medicine, and facilitate collaboration and co-operation among healthcare providers, with a new e-health authority to ensure that electronic health record guidelines are adhered to.

24-May-14 Thailand is in danger of losing its position as the world's top destination for medical tourism if foreign patients looking for low-cost, quality healthcare are scared off by the ongoing political unrest, especially at a time of growing competition from Korea and the Philippines.