Technology and Global Trade in Healthcare

Healthcare is growing as a global phenomenon: more patients are engaging in medical travel for reasons related to cost, accessibility, quality, and experience of care. Healthcare providers are also moving and collaborating across borders at an unprecedented level. Cedars-Sinai International (CSI) is the global extension of Cedars-Sinai, a top medical center and health system in Los Angeles that collaborates with partners in key regions outside of the United States to provide top-quality medical services to international patients and raises the standard of healthcare globally. CSI is addressing the important medical needs of these regions’ populations by building regional offices/clinics in medical travel hubs, engaging in hospital affiliations, or strategic collaborations. A large attractor for traveling patients is the availability of cutting-edge technology at a healthcare institution. These technological advances can improve patient care quality, communication, and knowledge transfer and address global challenges. However, in the face of growing innovations, we recognize the regulatory barriers and the importance of creating and applying a global method of technology and service accreditation to make the future of healthcare safer and even more impactful.

Medical Travel

Healthcare is increasingly growing as a global service and phenomenon. Patients have long traveled to premier healthcare institutions in Europe and the United States for complex clinical care and cutting-edge treatments that are not readily accessible in their home countries. Additionally, healthcare professionals have a history of moving from one country to another for employment opportunities or education and training purposes—a trend that will likely continue. Furthermore, United States Academic Medical Centers (AMCs) increasingly engage in global collaborative healthcare. The COVID-19 pandemic revealed that while healthcare delivery may be a local resource in certain environments, the medical knowledge and goods supply chain is global. Due to the pandemic, public and private sectors worldwide have invested more resources into all aspects of healthcare, promoting growth and collaboration in the global healthcare industry.

Medical travel, the act of traveling to another country to receive medical services, is recognized as a form of global trade in healthcare. This is distinct from unplanned emergencies while traveling to another country. Other terms used interchangeably to describe this phenomenon include medical tourism, health tourism, and destination healthcare, to name a few. This paper uses the phrase “medical travel” as it lacks negative connotations associated with tourism. Medical travel reasons are variable but usually related to medical care cost, accessibility, quality, and experience—including wait time. Recently, patients from richer countries have been traveling to less-developed countries to access lower-cost treatments and services. However, it’s important to note that drivers behind medical travel depend on home country-specific factors; for example, healthcare coverage is universal in Canada, so cost is not so much of a driver for medical travel as is wait time.

Shifting Landscape: From Local To Global

In the past, the United States stood out as a medical travel destination for high-quality healthcare. However, several challenges exist for patients overseas accessing care in the United States, including visa requirements, high cost of care, and cultural or language barriers. Patients have, therefore, been turning to regions other than the United States to access the desired high-quality care with fewer barriers to access. Thus, while Los Angeles is one of the most global cities in the United States, Cedars-Sinai has looked overseas to serve a larger population of medical travel patients. Cedars-Sinai International (CSI) is the global extension of Cedars-Sinai’s mission, vision, and values. To achieve our purpose, we supply two main lines of service at CSI: providing personalized, culturally appropriate care for patients traveling to Cedars-Sinai from outside the United States and developing sustainable international collaborations to share medical knowledge worldwide. CSI has collaborations in key regions, including Central and South America, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), and East and Southeast Asia.

"Considering the number of patients traveling to and from countries such as china and singapore, these csi regional offices are a critical step towards providing these regions with access to the best patient care modern medicine offers"

Regions such as East and Southeast Asia are important for CSI. These areas have become regional medical hubs due to countries’ political stability, government support, vibrant economies, and talented workforces. Recently, Asia-Pacific accounted for around 40% of the global medical travel market. In Southeast Asia, Thailand, Singapore, and Malaysia have become major destinations for medical travel. These locations draw many medical travel patients due to the competitive cost of care, technological advancements, expert medical providers, and high quality of care. Singapore attracts an estimated 500,000 overseas patients yearly; most medical travel patients to Singapore are from Indonesia. Although Singapore is currently ranked the most expensive city in the world, the costs of healthcare services are still competitive compared to the United States.

In addition to developing multiple Global Strategic Collaborations and Academic Collaborations in East and Southeast Asia, CSI maintains Regional Offices in Shanghai, China, and Singapore. These Regional Offices collaborate with the Los Angeles headquarters office to bring high-quality, high-touch medical services closer to local communities. CSI aims to extend operational excellence through regional offices to provide patients with continuity of care, raise the standard of global healthcare, and build knowledge-sharing means. Considering the number of patients traveling to and from countries such as China and Singapore, these CSI Regional Offices are a critical step towards providing these regions with access to the best patient care modern medicine offers.