28-Jan-15 Turkey continues to assert its dominance as a major medical tourism destination, with a record 360,000 foreign patients visiting the country in 2014, up from 308,000 in 2013. A further 100,000 received treatment as outpatients. Turkey’s long hot season, international travel connections and low cost healthcare all help to draw in medical tourists. [image: Nikkei Asian Review]

27-Jan-15 Metro Pacific Investments Corp (MPIC) is to buy 12 more hospitals outside Metro Manila. MPIC already has stakes in eight hospitals with 2,082 beds combined, which it wants to bring to 2,712 by the end of 2015. Acquisition targets are most likely to be in North and Southern Luzon. [image: Rappler]

27-Jan-15 The second phase of a healthcare program exclusively dedicated to people in Vietnam’s Central Highlands has started in Dak Lak. The Asian Development Bank has committed USD16.2 million to the program up to 2018. The initial goal of the program is to provide basic medical checks for one million residents in the region. [image: Tuoi Tre News]

26-Jan-15 Thonburi Hospital Group (THG), Thailand's third-largest private hospital group, says it expects to sign an MOU with Ga Mone Pwint (GMP Group) in Yangon to start building two superior-standard hospitals there. THG, which has 22 hospitals in Thailand and elsewhere with 3,000 beds combined, plans to spend US$100 million on the two hospitals. [image: Myanmar Business Today/Thonburi]

26-Jan-15 Many players in the healthcare industry continue to rely on a distribution model that hasn’t changed in decades. But new market pressures are forcing a reconsideration of the status quo. Direct-to-market distribution via 3PL providers is one cost-effective answer, says DHL, especially in emerging markets. [image: Supply Chain Matter / DHL]