30-Jan-17 Islamic Azad University is planning to host health tourists at its 11 hospitals across the country. “Medical tourism is the most profitable and stable branch of tourism in Iran,” said Dr Seyyed Ali Abtahi, the university’s deputy for medical sciences. People from Muslim countries are attracted to Iran. [image: Financial Tribune]

 Insights

26-Jan-17 London’s King’s College Hospital (KCH) will open its first full-fledged branch outside the UK in Dubai in 2018. The 100-bed multi-speciality facility will be located at Dubai Hills, and will be built at a cost of USD200 mn. Dr Layla Al Marzouqi, director of the Dubai Medical Tourism Project, hailed the move as a major boost to Dubai’s medical tourism. [image: Kings College Hospital]

23-Jan-17  Following Dubai Health Authority’s Dubai-RoboDoc pilot phase, where RoboDocs had been placed at hospital emergency departments and 24 hour primary healthcare centres, the authority will roll out the initiative across all DHA hospitals, all health centres, as well as some home-care patients, where a nurse will visit them and dial in for tele-consultations if needed. [image: Gulf News]

22-Jan-17 The healthcare construction market in the GCC appears to be growing at a steady rate as various high-value projects are being developed. There are 709 healthcare construction projects with a value of USD65 bn, out of which 133 are worth over USD100 mn. These projects make up almost 80% of all healthcare projects in the region. [image: World Health Organization]

19-Dec-16 Numbers of hair transplants have undergone a massive rise in Turkey, despite the recent unrest in the country. Turkey was the leading country for hair transplantations in 2015 and the numbers arriving still appear to be growing. According to data from the Turkish Healthcare Travel Council, 746,000 foreign visitors arrived in Turkey for medical treatment in 2015. [imgae: Tourism Review]