Why the medical travel industry needs social media

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The medical travel industry is peopled with healthcare practitioners and healthcare management professionals. Their services and expertise are primed for interaction with patients. However, in the medical travel industry, patients are no longer just patients; they turn into consumers who have decisive roles in the kinds of services meted to them.

In medical travel, patients have more choices and can pick their own medical travel provider with the desire for more value for their money. And they no longer rely on medical travel companies’ websites and brochures, formerly where the markets sought references. Potential medical tourists are now more Internet savvy, reading online articles and reviews written about available medical travel providers. They seek out feedback people who have had the same medical procedures.

 

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This is why medical travel companies need to invest more on their online presence, actively engaging and conversing with potential customers in order to build rapport and create patient advocates. Building a loyal client base is a continuing conversation that can take place in social media.

Social media is fast outpacing traditional methods of marketing and communication, and medical travel companies who take advantage of it may very well lead the industry to a new era.

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Steven Lash is the founder and CEO of Satori World Medical in San Diego. More information about him and his company can be found at this website.

Social media: Outperforming other communication mediums in medical travel

The medical travel industry is continuing to see rapid growth no matter how saturated it currently is, with more medical travel service companies popping up to take advantage of the lucrative business that comes with its increased acceptance and use. Most of this increased acceptance may be attributed to medical travel companies’ use of social media, which helps them directly communicate with and market to audiences and potential customers.

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The International Medical Travel Exhibition and Conference (IMTEC) was a two-day conference that seeks to be a platform that both medical service providers and their customers can use to better understand the latest trends and what really drives the medical travel industry. In addition to discussing the growing importance of technology and social media in the continued growth of the medical travel industry, topics such as patient rights, literacy, cross-border healthcare, more aggressive marketing, travel facilitation and transparency, and the consumerization of healthcare were also tackled. One of the main challenges to more mainstream acceptance of medical travel that was discussed was the creation of an environment where people can be easily educated regarding their rights and entitlements in overseas or cross-border healthcare using social media. Due to its popularity and its broad reach, social media is in the best position to provide this environment, outperforming traditional methods of communication.

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People getting onboard the medical travel bandwagon are most likely searching for the best doctors and the best hospitals outside the country, and through social media, medical travel service companies can easily assist them in doing so.

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Steven Lash is the founder and CEO of Satori World Medical in San Diego. More information about medical travel can be found at the Satori website.

Crowd funding: Fighting increasing healthcare costs

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In the world of technology and social media, crowd funding or the collective effort by individuals or groups to raise revenue via the Internet for creative projects or activities, such as building computer games or giving a bullied bus monitor a much-needed vacation, is very common. In the healthcare industry, however, crowd funding is not that common, at least until now.

Due to rising medical costs, underinsured and uninsured Americans are having a hard time shouldering their healthcare costs, which is why an increasing number of Americans turn to social media for help. An example of this would be Caleb Medley, a victim of the Aurora shooting incident. Caleb’s medical bills skyrocketed to almost $2 million after he was shot in the eye. With no way of paying that huge amount, his family and friends started a website and set up a Facebook page to raise money via crowd funding.

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In addition to social networking sites, many crowd funding sites, such as GoFundMe.comKickStarter.com, are also being used by Americans to raise money for health care that they could not otherwise afford. Websites like these generate a lot of funds, with GoFundMe.com’s Medical, Illness, and Healing category being the most popular category, attracting 17 percent of the total donations to the website. Some crowd funding websites, like GiveForward.com and YouCaring.com, specifically cater to medical crowd funding and also attract donations in the millions.

For Americans who cannot afford rising healthcare costs, crowd funding websites and medical travel providers that offer affordable, high-quality health care, such as Steven Lash’s Satori World Medical or David Boucher’s Companion Global Healthcare, can be a blessing.

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