21-Feb-17 India is emerging as a hotspot for medical tourism with arrivals of foreign tourists on medical visas showing phenomenal growth in the last two years. 2013 to 2015 witnessed growth of 140 percent, to 134,000 visits in 2015. The majority of patients are from the Middle East, Africa, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Maldives, Pakistan, Bhutan and Sri Lanka. [image: Business Standard]

14-Feb-17 The medical tourism industry in Malaysia is expected to achieve revenue of MYR1.3 bn (USD290 mn) in 2017, said the Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council. MHTC's CEO Sherene Azli said the industry is experiencing a growth of 30 per cent year-on-year. "Malaysia has the ecosystem and infrastructure to provide quality end-to-end healthcare system and services that are globally competitive," she said. [image: Reuters]

20-Feb-17 Three years ago Alibaba launched Ali Health to bolster the country’s health systems by streamlining processes with drug-tracking software. Other major companies began to develop mHealth solutions. Baidu created a chatbot that performs basic medical triage. But all of these companies are losing money. Ali Health alone lost USD30 bn in 2016. [image: China Daily]

20-Feb-17 Weill Cornell Medicine of the US has entered into an agreement with Tahoe Investment Group, part of a Chinese real estate company, to assist in the development of an international hospital in Shanghai. The proposed site is in the Yangpu District, an area with no international hospital, where the new facility will serve the local market and expatriates. [image: Weill Cornell Medicine]

 Insights

20-Feb-17 Raffles Medical Group is ramping up in China and Indochina as strong demand for quality healthcare offer attractive growth opportunities. It is also growing its portfolio of corporate clients with more multinational companies using its medical services outside of Singapore, including Japan, Vietnam and China. It also logged revenue of SGD474 mn, a 15% increase compared with a year ago. [image: Raffles Medical Group / Nikkei Asian Review]