13-Oct-16 The Philippines is short of 15,000 doctors to be able to adequately meet the health needs of Filipinos. It currently has one doctor for every 33,000 persons. The Health Secretary said there is a lack of volunteers willing to go to rural areas. The Doctors to the Barrios program can accommodate 398 doctors. However, 116 posts remain vacant. [image: CNN Philippines]

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11-Oct-16 Chinese tourists spent USD215 bn overseas in 2015 – including USD10 bn on medical tourism. Chinese are the world’s biggest spenders when travelling, and their splurging has extended towards health and wellness. The factors boosting medical tourism are propelling international property investment as many will be staying in their destination for a longer period of time or be recurring visitors. [image: Juwai]

11-Oct-16 Macao in southern China - renowned as Asia's 'Las Vegas' - has tabled plans to become a hub to make traditional Chinese medicine more standardized and scientific, and to further develop it to enable it to be sold around the world. [image: Xinhua]

11-Oct-16 Baidu - China's biggest search engine - has introduced an artificial intelligence-powered chatbot to connect with patients and suggest diagnoses to doctors. The bot is designed to be the first port of call for a person feeling sick. A patient poses a health query to 'Melody', which responds with further questions, and compares responses with Baidu's database. [image: VCG / Getty Images]