I had been looking at the postcards I collected over the years, watching the same old Cuban films to warm my soul, and wondering about the stories of the happy people in the pictures. One day, I started rereading Hemingway’s Old Man and the Sea and realized that I had been feeding an enthusiasm. I was imagining the Cuban kids who named Hemingway “Papa” as he was playing baseball with his sons in front of Finca Vigía’s house; the adventures he had in the sea with his boat tied up in the garden; and the fishermen who dressed the fish they caught off the coast of Cojímar with sea salt and sour grape juice. I imagined the members of the Buena Vista Social Club emerging unex-pectedly from one corner and singing songs as if they were all still alive, and the strangers I’d exchange greetings with in the street.

It wasn’t enough to have these recurring images in my head as dreams anymore. That’s when I decided to visit Cuba.I arrived in Havana on a scorching afternoon. With the curiosity and desire to explore this city I was visiting for the first time, I hailed a cab and headed towards Habana Vieja. We drove past Plaza de la Revolución which is home to buildings with reliefs of Che Guevera and Camilo Cienfuegos as well as José Martí Memorial. “Vas bien, Fidel,” it said under the re-lief portraying Camilo, one of the most belov-ed Cuban leaders. Camilo gave this response meaning “You’re doing well,” when, addressing the public, Fidel Castro looked back and asked, “Am I doing all right, Camilo?” I looked at this quote and his smiling eyes in the relief, smiling back. José Martí, who became a national hero with his contribution to Cuba’s fight for inde-pendence in the 19th century and who is also known for his poems and essays, was greeting the visitors to Havana with a more serious and pensive look. Judging from the expression on his memorial, you can feel that it was in no way easy for Cuba to build its presence.

Now, I am knocking on the door of the house in Habana Vieja, where I’ll be having the “casa particular” experience for the first time. Thanks to this service, you can make a reser-vation to accommodate at “lodging houses” and have the chance to witness local life. The door opens, and our hostess Bianca greets me with a big smile along with her grandchild who waves “Hola!” albeit with a shy look. We go upstairs so they can show me around the house. Bianca points to the balcony and the apart-ment next door saying, “If you need anything, you can call me from the balcony.” Looking around me on the balcony, I realize I am really in Havana!

Wandering around the sweet chaos of Ha-bana Vieja, the oldest part of the city, I start to see everything typical about Havana. Ema-nating the streets brimming with movement, sounds and colors, the nostalgic atmosphere is led by colonial structures and classic cars with stylish drivers waiting for their customers. I continue walking and encounter a crowded group of tourists in front of Hotel Ambos Mun-dos, where Hemingway wrote For Whom the Bell Tolls. With cameras hanging around their necks, they are impatient to go in. On Cathe-dral Square there are vendors selling guava juice and ice cream, college students, fortune-tellers in white dresses on every corner, and a few couples dancing in front of a café to the music overflowing onto the street. The melo-dies that carry “Son Cubano,” a music genre of African and Spanish origin, to present become the soundtrack of my trip to Havana. With these tunes in my heart, I visit the Museum of Colonial Art, the exhibitions at Wilfredo Lam Centre of Contemporary Art, and Alejo Car-pentier Foundation.

I meet Havana’s idiosyncratic lifestyle and lo-cal delicacies in the district of Vedado. Here, life fills the streets; it’s as if there are no house doors but streets open up into the houses. People chatting by the stoop, playing domi-noes with jokes, forming queues in front of the fruit stalls at the market, a family watching a football game on TV in a house with doors ful-ly open, two little girls practicing ballet moves in front of a fan… Each is like a frame that sums up the lives of the Cubans.

Cuba’s multicolored nature, inherited from its African origin, can also be seen here. It’s on women’s dresses and accessories, the tradi-tional men’s shirt called guayabera, school and business uniforms, hand-painted store signs and murals. Wherever I look, I see a different shade, feeling like strolling through a rainbow. I cannot help but smile. When people ask me where I’m from or say “Hello, welcome to our country,” I feel the pleasantries of life come to the surface. The joyous bustle of kids playing baseball keep the city’s rhythm ever lively. Cu-bans also love football, ballet, and music.

I wake up to a new day in Havana with the bal-cony chats of my neighbors. The topic ranges from TV series to which products are on sale at the market, from national politics to sports. The cries of the potato-seller are mingled with the shaking out of laundry. This is an ordinary day in Havana. Bianca calls me to the balcony. She gives me a tray of fried eggs, plantain, coffee, pineapple, mango, and guava. This breakfast has been shaped over time thanks to tourists visiting Cuba while locals greet the day with a sweet cup of coffee.

The breakfast is followed by house visits. My list includes the cadmium yellow Casa de la Obra Pía’s baroque courtyard; the rooms of Casa de Africa which is a giant mansion that displays objects brought from 26 African countries; Casa de los Árabes, which is the only mosque in the city and was built in Maghreb architec-ture; and the monumental El Capitolio.

Malecón, the esplanade stretching from one end of the city to the other, is the meeting place of locals after work hours. I am ready to greet the sunset with them. When I see people fishing on the coast, I imagine Hemingway’s stubborn and elderly fisherman, Santiago. In these moments when the sun paints the city orange, cars of all colors drive towards the set-ting sun. Three friends are sitting on the rocks playing guitar and singing songs with “Cuba” in them. The cordon is getting crowded as the young dance among the elongated shadows of people. I sit by the sea and surrender myself to the sound of the waves beating against the coast and the view of the darkening horizon. I think of what José Martí wrote, “I have two homelands; one is Cuba and the other is the night. Or are they one?” At that moment, Ma-lecón becomes the canvas of the painting of happiness that surrounds me. I know that one day this painting will call me back to this city.

In just over 10-years, Dror Paley, MD, FRCSC, has built the Paley Orthopedic & Spine Institute at St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach, FL, into the global leader in limb-lengthening and spine deformities treatments, and today continues offer world-class pediatric to adult orthopedic care for a wide variety of bone and joint ailments. Dr. Dror Paley is internationally renowned as a pioneer in orthopedic care having developed over 100 new operative procedures for bone and soft tissue reconstruction of congenital, developmental and post-traumatic limb disorders. The Paley Orthopedic & Spine Institute is a Center of Excellence in specific areas of orthopedics including spinal deformity, limblengthening, joint health, stature lengthening, pediatric orthopedics, hip pain, physical and occupational therapy, foot and ankle deformity and multiple hereditary exostoses (MHE). Paley Orthopedic & Spine Institute is located at 901 45th St., Kimmel Building, in West Palm Beach, FL.

“We offer cutting edge solutions for the simplest to the most difficult orthopedic problems with very high success rates of 98 percent. We frequently solve the unsolvable,” Dr. Paley said.

Travelling to another country for the most advanced medical treatment, or medical tourism, is on the rise and at the Paley Orthopedic & Spine Institute on any given day sees patients from every continent on the planet who seek the treatment of Dr. Paley and his team. Communication with families from all over the world is paramount and Dr. Paley is master communicator on the subject and in different languages, he speaks English, Hebrew, French, Italian, Spanish and Russian. He has been practicing medicine since 1980. While Dr. Paley’s schedule is very busy while in West Palm Beach, he also finds the time to travel around the world meeting community leaders and the people who live there. Dr. Paley regularly presents his findings to scholars in medical communities in numerous countries across the globe.

“My international reputation creates a global referral network. Doctors I teach from around the world send us patients,” Dr. Paley said.

Dr. Paley’s education and training includes: completion of pediatric orthopaedic surgery fellowship training from the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, AOA-COA North American Traveling Fellowship – Limb Lengthening and External Fixation Traveling Fellowship from the Hospital of Lecco, Lecco, Italy, Hospital Borgo Roma, Verona, University of Rome, Rome, Kneikott Institute, Kurgan, USSR, Nufield Orthopaedic Hospital, Oxford, England and an additional hand and trauma surgery fellowship from Sunnybrook Medical Centre, University of Toronto, Toronto.

Dr. Paley completed his residency in orthopaedic surgery from the University of Toronto Teaching Hospitals, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, his internship in orthopaedic surgery from Johns Hopkins University, The Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, MD, and graduated medical school from the University of Toronto, School of Medicine. He is certified by the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery.

In addition, Dr. Paley leads a medical observership program. Dr. Paley has lectured and demonstrated surgery in more than 80 countries and provides training for specialists from around the world through a fellowship program.

“We constantly have fellows visiting from all over the world. They come from over 50 countries. They then go home and provide some of these services and often refer patients with the most difficult problems,” Dr. Paley said.

“There are always new international fellows coming (to the Paley Orthopedic & Spine Institute) for training.”

Dr. Paley said medical tourism is on the rise, 90 percent of the patients he and his team care for are from outside of the State of Florida, they’ve come from all 50 states and even more amazing is the fact, the people of 90 different countries and counting have had procedures performed at the Paley Orthopedic & Spine Institute. One recent report pointed out as many as 8,000 hotel rooms are booked in the Palm Beach County, FL, area every year by Paley Orthopedic & Spine Institute patients.
While Dr. Paley leads this one of kind orthopedic center, perhaps as equally impressive is the team he’s built to care for a patient population ranging from newborns to centenarians.

Recently, Claire E. Shannon, MD, a fellowship-trained pediatric orthopedic surgeon with special focus in limb deformity joined Paley Orthopedic & Spine Institute in Sept. 2019. Dr. Claire Shannon recently joined Dr. Paley and is opening her new practice at the Paley Orthopedic & Spine Institute. Dr. Shannon specializes in pediatric orthopaedics, limb lengthening, congenital limb deformities, post-traumatic deformity and complex hip and pelvis procedures. She is certified by the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery. Dr. Shannon is on-staff at St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach.

Prior to joining Tenet Florida Physician Services (TFPS) and the Paley Orthopedic & Spine Institute, Dr. Shannon served as an assistant professor of orthopedic surgery in the division of pediatric orthopedic surgery at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine located in Baltimore, MD. At Johns Hopkins, Dr. Shannon’s specialty included the treatment of pediatric and young adult patients with congenital and developmental limb deformities, foot and ankle problems, complex hip and pelvis problems, and traumatic injuries including fractures. Today, Dr. Shannon is affiliated with Johns Hopkins as honorary faculty.

For her education and training, Dr. Shannon completed a fellowship in pediatric orthopedic surgery at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada. Dr. Shannon finished her residency and internship in orthopedic surgery at Case Western/University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland, OH. She graduated medical school from the University of Rochester School of Medicine in Rochester, NY.

Dr. Shannon presented her research and findings relating to orthopaedic surgery and pediatric orthopaedic surgery to the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery for a medial article titled: “Final Fusion After Growing Rod Treatment of Early Onset Scoliosis: Is it Really Final?” Dr.

Shannon’s peer-reviewed article “Hip Arthroscopy for Extra-Articular Hip Disease” published in the Current Reviews in Muscoskeletal Medicine journal.

In addition, Dr. Shannon contributed research to a $100,000 NFL Charities Medial Research Grant. Dr. Shannon also completed book chapters and monographs on the topic of “Salter Innominate Osteotomy” published in the Pediatric Pelvic and Proximal Femoral Osteotomies: A Clinical Casebook, 1st Ed., and “Hip Instability in Down Syndrome” in Pediatric Pelvic and Proximal Femoral Osteotomies: A Clinical Casebook, 1st Edition. Dr. Shannon has been practicing medicine since 2011.

Bradley M. Lamm, DPM, FACFAS, joined the Paley Orthopedic & Spine Institute in 2016 to lead the Foot & Ankle Deformity Correction Center. Dr. Bradley Lamm is a board-certified podiatric foot and ankle surgeon. He previously served as the head of Foot & Ankle Surgery at the International Center for Limb Lengthening (ICLL) at the Rubin Institute for Advanced Orthopedics at Sinai Hospital in Baltimore. Dr. Lamm specializes in the treatment of foot, ankle, and lower leg conditions in both children and adults.

Dr. Lamm is an expert in treating diabetic foot deformities, ankle disorders, sports or athletic injuries, arthritis, flatfoot, bunions, hammertoes, and various other foot and ankle ailments. He has extensive experience in joint distraction, a new technique which uses external fixation to preserve ankle and toe joints and prevents the need for fusion or replacement. Dr. Lamm performs minimally invasive surgery techniques to correct diabetic Charcot foot and to lengthen the metatarsals and toes for patients with Brachymetatarsia.

In June 2019, Dr. Lamm was featured for a new surgery to fix bunions only available at the Paley Orthopedic & Spine Institute in West Palm Beach, FL. According to several news reports and the Paley Orthopedic & Spine Institute, Dr. Lamm created an internal device called a mini bunion manufactured by Crossroads Extremity Systems.

Tom Minas, MD, FACS, joined the Paley Orthopedic & Spine Institute in 2018 after 30 years at Harvard Medical School, where he was a Professor of Orthopedic Surgery. He is a founding member of the ICRS (International Cartilage Repair Society-1997) and present Vice President of the Society. He brought Autologous Chondrocyte Implantation (ACI) to the United States in 1995 from Sweden and has done the most Cartilage Transplants in the world. He is a pioneer and innovator, having invented many surgical techniques to treat osteoarthritis in the young and old arthritic patient and has developed and patented customized individually made knee eplacements. His work in patient-specific knee replacement has led to the introduction of a family of tissue preserving, customized implants based on patient-specific imaging data to restore native articulating geometry. Dr. Minas specializes in various procedures.

Dr. Minas has published and lectured extensively on cartilage repair and joint preservation of the knee. He has written a textbook, over a dozen book chapters, as well as more than 100 peer- reviewed articles in international journals. Additionally, Dr. Minas has directed multiple international conferences on biologic repair of arthritic joints. He was recently awarded by the America Knee Society the prestigious Insall Award in 2013 for his work on the Long-Term Outcomes assessment of ACI in the knee. For more information, check out the Cartilage Repair Center website.

In 2015, David Feldman, MD, joined the Paley Orthopedic & Spine Institute to lead the new Spine Deformity Center and Hip Pain Center. Dr. Feldman was previously Chief of Pediatric Orthopedic Surgery and a professor of Orthopedic Surgery and pediatrics at NYU Langone Medical Center / NYU Hospital for Joint Diseases. Dr. Feldman specializes in pediatric orthopedic surgery and subspecializes in children with scoliosis and severe limb and hip deformities as well as hip and knee arthroscopy and advanced joint preservation techniques in children and adults.

After graduating from the Albert Einstein School of Medicine in 1988, Dr. Feldman interned in general surgery at NYU Langone Medical Center. He completed his residency in orthopedic surgery in June 1993 and spent the next year in fellowship at The Hospital for Sick Children Toronto with a special interest in pediatric orthopedic surgery and pediatric spine surgery. Dr. Feldman brings over 20 years of experience in pediatric orthopedics, spinal deformity and joint preservation to the practice.

Craig A. Robbins, MD, was born and raised in Miami, Florida. He attended the University of Texas at Austin with a B.A. in English, and then ultimately returned home to graduate from the University of Miami School of Medicine in 1999. He completed his orthopedic surgery residency at Tulane University in New Orleans in 2004. Dr. Robbins then completed his pediatric orthopedic fellowship in Memphis, TN, at the Campbell Clinic, in 2005. Following this, he completed a mini-fellowship in limb deformity correction with Dr. Paley in Baltimore.
After training, Dr. Robbins and his family moved to Jackson, Mississippi. He spent 4 years in private practice and then in 2009 transitioned to the University of Mississippi Medical Center. In that same year he was named “Doctor of the Year” by DrScore.com for having the highest patient satisfaction rating of all physicians in their database.
Dr. Robbins enjoys all aspects of pediatric orthopedics, but his specialty is treating children with congenital and acquired limb abnormalities. These include femoral deficiency, tibial and fibular hemimelia, congenital pseudarthrosis, post-traumatic growth arrest, malunions, nonunions, and various angular and axial deformities such as genu varum, genu valgus, limb length discrepancy, and Blount’s disease. In addition, Dr. Robbins treats limb deformities in adults. Dr. Robbins has ectured around the country and regularly serves as an expert faculty member teaching techniques of external fixation and deformity correction to orthopedic surgeons.

Christina M. Schilero, DPM, joined the Paley Orthopedic & Spine Institute in 2016 after completing her residency in foot and reconstructive rearfoot and ankle surgery at West Houston Medical Center. She has completed a fellowship with Dr. Paley and performs specialized treatments for a variety of foot and ankle conditions. She also specializes in an innovative approach to complex wounds.

“We cover the full array of orthopedic subspecialties. Our specialists are all the top of their fields,” said Dr. Paley.

The Mission of the Paley Orthopedic & Spine Institute is to provide the most technologically advanced treatments to improve the lives of those who suffer from congenital, developmental, and post-traumatic orthopedic conditions. We are a world-renowned center specializing in:

• Limb Deformity Correction & Lengthening                          
• Spinal Deformity Correction                                        
• Joint Preservation                                                        
• Advanced Pediatric Orthopedics

Serving children and adults from the local community, the United States, and the World, the Paley Orthopedic & Spine Institute offers comprehensive, coordinated care from an experienced team of professionals designed for the specific needs of each patient. At the Paley Orthopedic & Spine Institute, our treatment philosophy focuses on reconstruction over amputation, and a commitment to preserving limbs and joints and restoring function.

The Paley Orthopedic & Spine Institute is located on the campus of St. Mary’s Medical Center, home to the Palm Beach Children’s Hospital. St. Mary’s boasts a dedicated team of physicians, nurses, and staff to offer a broad spectrum of outstanding medical care, including acclaimed pediatric services, trauma, stroke, orthopedics, and obstetrics.

Specialized Services at St. Mary’s Medical Center:

• Surgical Special Care Unit  
• The Palm Beach Children’s Hospital
• Advanced Imaging & Radiology Suites
• Wound Healing & Hyperbaric Medicine Center Physicians, specialists and insurance companies around the world refer their patients to the Paley Orthopedic & Spine Institute.

The world-class surgeons and the personalized approach of the Patient Care Coordination Team provide comprehensive second opinions and consultative support for referrers to assure patients achieve the right diagnosis and the right access to care. As a Center of Excellence in highly complex orthopedic clinical services, the Institute seeks global partnerships to expand its footprint and advocacy through referral treatment, professional consultancy, and physician training that supports the entire lifespan of families in need of orthopedic care.

The level of clinical expertise equals the overflowing compassion and personalized experience delivered by the Patient Care Coordination Team. Families can trust they will receive the world- class comprehensive medical care, and world-class compassion.

The Paley Orthopedic & Spine Institute is located at: 901 45th St., Kimmel Building, West Palm Beach, FL 33407.

EuroEvents is a Business Information Provider, producing events, developing brands and most importantly – creating value for the respective industry. The aim of EuroEvents is to provide exclusive boutique events, great networking potential, and learning platforms. The events portfolio encompasses congresses and summits, certification and workshop seminars, professional training, exhibitions, and trade shows, conferences, and forums.

One of the industries EuroEvents has devoted a lot of time and effort in is the Medical Tourism Industry.

The Medical Tourism Conference started back in 2015, when it was held in Budapest, Hungary. The 2 nd edition took place in Prague, Czech Republic, the 3 rd in Warsaw, Poland and the 4 th in Berlin, Germany, 5 th in Zagreb, Croatia. This year, we will have the BALTIC EXECUTIVE MEDICAL TOURISM SUMMIT on 23rd and 24th of October 2019 in Latvia. 

Following five remarkable editions of the Medical Tourism Conference, we take a deep dive into the specifics of the Baltic region. For the inaugural edition of the Summit, the program is patient-centric – The focus is on the traditional ways and the use of new technologies to improve the patient’s journey while finding ways to cut costs.

It is our pleasure to offer you insights from the industry leaders and contacts from medical tourism facilitators that will help you win these trends. The Summit program will offer perspectives from all industry players and a B2B workshop to help you win new clients.

Prepare to grasp the intense networking and learning opportunities this October in Latvia!

The first day reserved for conference activities, filled with renowned speakers presenting on intriguing and popular topics in the sphere. The second day will be fully committed to the Workshop, at which EuroEvents facilitates pre-arranged meetings among health care buyers and providers. Baltic Executive Medical Tourism Summit will provide an interactive platform during which practitioners and leading experts in the area will share, discuss and construct trategies for future growth and innovation for the purpose of creating and sustaining successful facilities.

For the previous 5 editions, Medical Tourism Conference has had approximately 580 attendees, 30 partners and sponsors and more than 70 speakers throughout the years.

MTC helped clinics and hospitals get connections with facilitators and insurance companies, discuss insurance trends and challenges, and every single time EuroEvents empowered the delegates to leave the venue richer with knowledge, experience, and connections.

During all these years, EuroEvents built many partnerships in many different regions. One of the partnerships with successful cooperation with RHAZES GLOBAL. RHAZES GLOBAL is an important ally for EuroEvents in the region, helping in building connections and contributing towards the development of medical tourism. EuroEvents certainly hopes on future collaboration, as the improvement of the numbers and the satisfaction of inbound and outbound patients in the region becomes possible when working together.

EuroEvents built a legacy that brings the event among the top global conferences in the sector of medical tourism.

Make sure to book your spot at this year’s conference to hear successful stories straight from the market and to learn how to deal with challenges in the medical tourism industry.

Optimizing the Medical Travel Care Continuum                                                   While the Global Healthcare Accreditation (GHA) Program reviews some clinical aspects of care (specifically as they impact medical travelers), it’s primary focus is on enhancing the patient experience (including pre- and post-care) and improving the performance of an organization’s medical travel program. At the heart of the Global Healthcare Accreditation’s standards is the Medical Travel Care Continuum (MTCC); these are the touchpoints or stages of the medical travel experience, from first contact, all the way through medical follow-up back home. The MTCC depicts the entire care continuum that must be integrated and managed to ensure good clinical outcomes, good patient experience and good business practices that positively impact an organization’s performance.

More patients are demanding a great patient           Patients want and expect good quality outcomes. And in today’s world, they also expect a good or great patient experience. In fact, a growing body of evidence suggests that focusing on the patient experience also improves clinical outcomes. For example, an article published in the New England Journal of Medicine suggested that hospitals with high levels of patient reported ‘care experience’ provide higher quality clinical care across a range of conditions.
To deliver a high-quality patient experience, each touchpoint along the medical travel care continuum must be optimized to ensure a positive medical travel experience. “Consider some of the terrible airline passenger experiences that have gone viral on social media in recent years,” said Ms. Timmons. “In these cases, the passengers have arrived safely at their destination; however, they certainly did not have a great experience with the airline, and the wide publicity surrounding these events damaged the reputation of the airline. In medical travel, patients will often judge a hospital by their entire trip experience including the interactions on the website, remote communication with staff, airport pick-up, the hotel…all these details impact the patient’s perception of your organization.” But what actual value does GHA accreditation bring to a facility?
Accreditation is an external validation of an organizations’ commitment to quality. It demonstrates a hospital or clinic’s willingness to have an external third party conduct an onsite review of their compliance with recognized best practice standards, so accreditation builds trust and enhances the reputation for organizations, while strengthening the confidence of patients.

Additionally, GHA helps improve the patient experience for medical travelers and supports healthcare providers in increasing visibility and implementing a sustainable business model for medical travel.

Better business performance                                                                     While GHA cannot guarantee increased international patient flow to an organization, the results of the accreditation process will put the organization in a better position to attract and effectively serve medical travel patients. Specifically, we are referring to improved patient experience across the entire medical travel care continuum and better business performance of the medical travel program. You may be aware that recent studies demonstrate that improving the patient experience correlates with better financial performance. According to a recent report by Accenture, a well-known strategy and consulting organization: “A superior customer experience doesn’t just strengthen patient engagement — it also correlates to 50 percent higher hospital margins.”
GHA also offers guidance within its standards and requires ongoing monitoring of Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) unique to medical travel, ensuring that healthcare providers are continually and accurately measuring and improving the performance of their medical travel program. “In fact, Timmons said. “It has been gratifying to hear feedback from our accredited clients which highlights improved patient experience scores, an increase in patient volume and the ability and confidence to target new markets since becoming GHA accredited.”

Additionally, GHA is working so that more insurance companies and global payers adopt medical travel and to help them determine which hospitals have implemented best prac
tices for medical travel patients. Our advisory board includes representatives from recognized insurers such as Cigna, Aetna, and Axa.

Addressing the lack of data in medical travel                                               GHA, however; isn’t solely in the business of accreditation – it also provides training on the GHA standards and medical travel best practices and advisory services to help organizations enhance the medical travel care continuum or develop a medical travel program or destination brand. GHA is also pursuing the collection of data specific to medical travelers. According to Ms. Timmons, “For such a
large industry, there is a lack of consensus on definitions and very little data regarding clinical and patient experience outcomes for medical travelers. Healthcare executives cannot make intelligent decisions for their organizations unless they truly understand the context in which they do business. GHA aims to promote consensus and clear definitions for the medical travel industry including, “How do we define a medical traveler?” and “What are meaningful key performance indicators in medical travel?” In other words, GHA believes that advocating for international best practices in medical travel will help encourage transparency, credibility and sustainability in the industry.
said Dr. Erik Fleischman, Former International Medical Director of Thailand’s Bumrungrad International Hospital.
“The GHA process – what I believe should be more accurately called ‘The GHA Experience’ – was an exercise in practical, pragmatic, necessary quality improvement. GHA was particularly fitting for our institution, as it is the only accreditation that helps assure quality care from the time a patient leaves their home to the time they return after medical care. We are a great hospital. We are even better after GHA.”

Medical travel standards recognized by ISQua
GHA reached a new milestone in 2019 with the accreditation of its standards by the International Society for Quality in Healthcare (ISQua), known as the accreditor of accreditors. “This achievement provides assurance to patients, insurers, ministries of health, and other stakeholders that an organization’s medical travel services have undergone a rigorous evaluation against the highest international benchmarks for accreditation entities and are focused on both international best practices in medical travel and continuous improvement,” said Ms. Timmons.
As internationally recognized healthcare brands expand their global footprint, the global healthcare industry will become increasingly more competitive and defined as to consumer choice and preferences. As the medical travel industry continues to evolve – the question that remains is: Will organizations be referencing the correct framework for medical travel?” The Global Healthcare Accreditation (GHA) Program provides the ideal starting point to introduce international standards and professional norms that provide a measurable impact on patient experience and the performance of the medical travel program.

IPhones and iPads also have this feature. If you don’t have this feature on your android device, I’ll recommend a few apps you can download from Google play store.
The first application I can recommend is Blue Light Filter.
You can download and use the free application. The application is not complicated, you can use the color temperature options you wish and adjust the intensity manually.
The only drawback is that it doesn’t work on the lock screen and notification panel when the app is open. I have looked through a lot of applications, all of them have the same problem, I think this may be related to the android update.
The second application I can recommend is Twilight.
You can also download this application for free. This application allows you to make some more detailed settings. Again, there are features as filter density, color temperature and screen brightness adjusting.
One more advantage is that when you set the time, the phone gradually reduces the blue light towards sunset. And in addition, if you have Philips Hue lamps in your home, you can gradually adjust the color of your lamps in connection with the application to a level that will not disturb you.
With these applications you can protect your eyes a little more from these technological products. One last advice: when you look at screen for a long time, try to look at the distant object every 20 minutes. When we look at screen closely for a long time, our eyes become lazy and distorted to focus. In order to avoid this, do not forget to look at distance and think every 20 minutes. And don’t forget to blink your eyes to avoid dryness.

In 1918, the organization opened its first medical service and began financing the creation of hospitals, medical schools, and dental clinics throughout the country. In 1919, Hadassah built hospitals in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Tiberias, Haifa, and Safed. Subsequently, all hospitals except the two Jerusalem hospitals under Hadassah guidance — Hadassah Ein Kerem and Hadassah Har HaZofim (a complex on Mount Scopus) — were transferred to the municipal authorities.
Today, Hadassah is one of the largest medical centers in the Mediterranean region. Its students undergo practical training in five medical schools, in addition, Hadassah is the research base of the medical faculty of the Hebrew University. There are research institutes of oncohematology, neurology, genetics, and other branches of medicine. Hadassah is internationally known as a leader in the development and implementation of new treatment protocols, drugs, methods, and medical technologies. Doctors of the clinic often go to provide charity care to places of major earthquakes, epidemics, and zones of armed conflicts. The hospital is constantly expanding with new buildings constructed and additional units and laboratories.

Unique diagnosis and treatment in Hadassah
Video for the article to this block: https://youtu.be/3mI-v4_J5dA                                                                                                                   Сaption: Hadassah changes lives of people around the world

Cancer treatment
One of the highest priority areas in Hadassah is oncology. If cancer is suspected, the clinic uses the most modern and accurate diagnostic methods, such as the genetic tests InVitae, Caris Target Now, Foundation One, his
Since its establishment, Hadassah’s staff has followed the fundamental principle: the clinic works for the benefit of all its patients, regardless of racial or religious differences.
tological studies, and the latest MRI, CT, and PET-CT methods. All the advanced oncological treatment methods are used here, such as all types of chemotherapy with minimal side effects, including intraoperative HIPEC therapy, hormone therapy, targeted therapy,
immunotherapy, bone marrow and stem cell transplantation, HIFU technique, electro-, cryo- and laser destruction, etc.

Hadassah did not confirm about 34% of all oncological diagnoses of other clinic

Innovations

• Last year, Hadassah presented the only supersensitive PET-CT device in Israel, able to detect tumors 2-3 mm in size, which was impossible before the commissioning of the innovative unit.
• The clinic offers exclusive radiotherapy using the ultra-precise Novalis TrueBeam Stx device, which reduced the duration of the course by 30-50%.
• For the first time in Israel, Hadassah oncologists have begun using NanoKnife technology to remove localized prostate cancer.
• Hadassah treats neuroendocrine tumors using advanced Peptide Receptor Radionuclide Therapy (PRRT) technology. This therapy is 2-3 times more effective in the clinic than in oth er Israeli medical centers because only here the radioactive material for therapy is produced directly in the hospital campus and is used immediately.
• The clinic has cured more than 200 patients with metastatic melanoma who were declared hopeless in other medical centers. The treatment was carried out using a unique vaccine developed by Professor Michal Lotem.

Video for the article to this block:https://youtu.be/qhNriiphznUVideo

Сaption: Stuart Greenberg came to Hadassah with a diagnosis of fourth-degree melanoma with metastases in the stomach. Doctors in the United States said that he had only a few months left to live, but they saved his life in Hadassah.

Treatment of rare genetic diseases using BMT
Patients from all over the world come to Hadassah to see the doctors of the bone marrow transplantation unit, recently JACIEaccredited Professor Polina Stepensky and Dr. Irina Zaydman. Under their guidance, the clinic conducted more than 3,500 successful transplants, more than 30% of which accounted for children. Polina Stepensky often works with small patients from Russia. If necessary, parents are assisted in applying to charitable foundations for financial support of treatment. In Hadassah, a multidisciplinary team of specialists takes care of small patients: oncologists, hematologists, nurses, psychologists, teachers, and medical clowns. In order to avoid infectious complications, children are placed in special aseptic units.

Neurosurgery
In July 2018, Hadassah neurosurgeons were the first in Israel to use the world's most powerful KINEVO 900 surgery microscope, created by the famous German company – Zeiss. The device makes visible the smallest tumors and vessels in 3D; it has significantly boosted Israeli neurosurgery. Hadassah is the only medical facility in the Middle East providing treatment of stroke patients over 80 years of age. In January 2018, a 99-year-old patient underwent a similar operation. Hadassah neurosurgeons treat newborns, starting from their very birth, and elderly people of almost any age: the age of 99 years has so far been a record, but, according to Professor Jose Cohen, 100 years is not the limit.
“Few people know that many advanced technologies are being introduced in Israel – in Hadassah – earlier than in the US because we do not need permission from the FDA – the US regulatory system – but only EU per mission. Hadassah is a hospital that operates as an American structure and organization, with European regulations and a foundation, and the Judaism values. Jewish morality, the most advanced technology in the world, and the American-type administration". Professor Jose Cohen is the Head of Branch of Interventional Neuroradiology. His work and scientific activity was repeatedly marked by honorary awards, the first persons of the states trust their health to Jose Cohen, pa tients from dozens of countries around the world seek his care. Professor Cohen has no equal in the treatment of cerebral aneurysms and strokes.

Orthopedics
Last year, Hadassah became the first clinic in the Middle East to apply the latest spine metastases radiotherapy technology – Spine SRS. Spine SRS software ensures a 3-4-time increase in the accuracy of radiotherapy, which reaches a record level of less than 1 mm. As a result, it is possible either to completely replace the surgical intervention with radiation therapy, or to conduct a small operation.
Hadassah was the first in Israel to use a combination of BRAINLAB's innovative navigation system and ZEEGO’s advanced imaging device to remove hard-to-reach tumors. Only thanks to this, the orthopedists managed to replace the difficult and dangerous intervention with a minimally invasive operation when removing a benign tumor located on the femur of a 27-year-old patient.

The reason for thickening of the legs and hips is inactivity.
Moving, energy expenditure is one of the first solutions of today’s diseases such as obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, cholesterol, insulin resistance and protection of cardiovascular health. Especially, in desk workers and people who work long hours in big cities, weight-gain due to inactivity is one of the complaints we frequently encounter. A 45-minute walk 2-3 times a week, approximately 10,000 steps per day will help you maintain your weight or lose weight. High fat and refined sugary foods and alcohol consumption Alcohol consumption also increases fat in the waist and hip areas due to the high calories it contains. There are 7 calories of energy in 1 gram of alcohol taken into the body. Protein and carbohydrates contain 4 calories per gram and fats contain 9 calories per gram. The excess alcohol that cannot be converted into energy in the body, accumulates as fat, especially in the abdominal area of the body. Furthermore, alcohol disrupts the order of hormones that increases the feeling of hunger. As a result we eat more while taking alcohol and get high fat and energy…
Stress and insomnia – the hidden reasons of getting fat!
High stress level affects appetite hormones (leptin and ghrelin) and people feel hunger. In such cases, excessive food consumption causes person to become fat. In addition, the effect of hunger hormone changes according to the type of food consumed. It’s a well known fact, that fast digested food without staying a long time in the stomach makes a person hungry faster than a slow digested foods that are staying for a long time in the stomach.
After the nights of sleeplessness, we wake up with a swollen and edematous body. This is caused by “cortisole” hormone in the body. Cortisol, which makes high edema in the body, also tries to prevent fat burning. Even if the body tends to lose weight, sleepnes prevents this. In addition, in the studies conducted during a year, the participants had to sleep and wake up at the same time every day, they lost 5-10% of weight at the end of the year. 6-8 hours of night sleep is a healthy step against local fatigue.
furthermore, insulin resistance, genetic factors, age, sex, amount of water consumption, insufficient consumption of fruit and vegetables, which are high fiber foods, increase local wait-gain. Of course, we should keep in mind that the food we eat more than needed will be definitely stored in the body. For example, excessive consumption of fruit may also cause waist fat. It’s crucial to eat with recommended limits!
I wish you days without stress and insomnia, full of movement and healthy foods that meet your daily needs!

Public and private leadership should see the shift in referral patterns of patients as a sign that we could do better; each one of us has an obligation to come together to do more to facilitate greater collaboration, partnership, and contribution to building up healthcare services worldwide. Long gone are the days of inbound patient referral from emerging markets without more two-way street dealing to justify these relationships. Insurance companies and providers must contribute to population health strategies not only from an ethical perspective for ethical reasons, but also to develop a sustainable business model moving forward.

Physician training, advisory and &and capacity building services, academic exchange, and philanthropic ventures focusing on population health management goals are be-coming the underlying requisite investment that a provider or health system must offer to continue to receive inbound patient referrals. This intersection across business units is often ignored, leaving global programs fragmented, difficult to expand, and otherwise unsustainable.

For example, there are leading hospitals in the United States collecting millions of dollars from a Caribbean government in physician training fees in areas of clinical expertise that the provider offers due to its own program capacity, yet a waiting period for a mammogram can be up to two years be-cause women’s health is not a top focus of the affiliation program. Not only does this fail to meet the needs identified in the nation-al healthcare assessment report, but it only results in inpatient referrals inbound to the United States.S. for services that could (and should) be delivered locally with the right advisory and training programs in place. The cost to the local government far outweighs the value received because complex and mi-nor clinical services must still be outsourced.

Memorandums of Understanding, hospital affiliations, and consulting agreements are executed between governments and providers to provide offer a variety of services not linked to inbound patient services sought, or even to the surgeries performed in other destinations as part of philanthropic ventures. Why is there such a disconnect? Generally, the internal departments responsible for these various business development activities are not talking to each other. The result is a complete lack of continuity and lost opportunity to really generate an impact in the markets entered.

Many health systems have been working with governments for years without a defined strategy for global health and, as a result, the global health program lacks leadership sup-port. Philanthropic programs generate funding for research and development; advisory contracts and inbound patient flow generates revenue, but rarely do all of these activities link to one regional purpose and global health statement.

Moreover, physicians more often than not maintain their own relationships with refer-ring physicians and global connections and fail to pull these relationships into the global health department, leaving systems with-out good data about the source of referrals. Worse yet, the international program loses revenue- generating on opportunities. Physician training programs, residencies, observer-ships, and other physician- and nursing-based programs are not organized in a way to leverage visiting or trained medical professionals as brand ambassadors for future referrals. This represents a significant disconnect and lack of efficiency.

Other critical areas involved in the business of health are being neglected. Price transparency and sensitivity, superb clinical out-comes, and low complications rates, as well as a high priority focus on end to end care continuum for optimal patient experiences, are the now the norm. A new door is open, affording smaller or less well-known brands the opportunity to step in and acquire business relationships from embassies, insurance companies, and corporate referrers, defying years of historical patient referral patterns.

Trending new industry goals

One of the biggest areas in need of innovation is in the delivery of the patient experience. Too often, patients are just an identification number, a medical record, or a claims number on an insurance form.

This does not refer to the delivered care by nurses or physicians per se; in failing to prioritize the transformation of the business of health, we often forget the human side of it.

We forget empathy. We forget that empathy and the attention to the details in the patient care continuum is good business. The single most valuable change in the medical tourism industry has been the ‘silent pause’ taken by stakeholders all over the world to accept that riding big brands and prior patient experience alone is not enough to sustain long term business models and justify the major investment by itself. New models of healthcare delivery urgently provide not only better quality and delivery of healthcare services, but also the better value of services built upon bundled pricing and a patient experience that all con-tribute to lower complications.

More employers, insurance companies, and governments direct contract with hospitals and steer patients across state borders and (in some cases) across country borders. Why? Let’s suppose perhaps they have woken out of a dream previously focused on cost reduction strategies, only to find that the best cost reduction strategies are based in high quality, reduced complications, and more affordable care . Providing covered patients with the right diagnosis and right treatment plan the first time around is the best care. This dream also rests upon the need to treat individuals as human beings, with the element of choice a necessity and decisions resting upon true transparency of quality and pricing. Steering individuals to centers of excellence for the right diagnosis the first time around supports putting the individual first above all else.

It’s crucial to ensure patients’ needs are met, especially those who travel for medical care. Each year we receive patients from all 50 states and more than 125 countries. We chose Global Healthcare Accreditation as it conducts a deep review of the entire Medical Travel Care Continuum, beginning when the patient first enquires about our services all the way through their arrival back home, including the patient experience at all touch points. Addition-ally, GHA reviews those sustainable business processes and practices related to medical travel that has helped us identify areas of opportunity to enhance patient experience and improve operational performance.”

There is a huge disparity in healthcare delivery worldwide. But medical travel supports breaking down this disparity through clarity and universally delivered expectations. Organizations like Global Healthcare Accreditation are focused on systematizing these expectations and building standards to hold organizations and people responsible.

Accreditation for hospitals in medical travel is truly disruptive in a world of consumers requiring more personalized service and clinical excellence.

The patient experience is just as important to medical travel because it’s inextricably linked to better clinical outcomes.

Healthcare is more personalized than ever and the hospitals that are winning over the patients and referrers of care, are those that ‘get it’ and give it. It’s about the individualized story for each patient, the healthcare experience, and the personalized relation-ship between patients and their healthcare providers.

Expanding the metrics

Healthcare is one of the late industries to globalize. We can see various important trends impacting the patient who travels for care, whether they are patients from developed countries seeking more affordable care in developing countries due to lack of insurance (or being underinsured), or patients in developing markets seeking access to better quality or avoiding long queues.

Celebrating twelve years since its inception, Medical Tourism Association provided the industry opportunity to reflect on some other great changes, as evidenced through the dialogues shared by leading buyers and providers of care at the live and virtual events of-fered by HEALTHCARE ЯREVOLUTION and the World Medical Tourism & Global Health-care Congress (WMTC) each year.

We are experiencing an expansion of the definition of the terminology, the scope of the industry, and the adoption of good met-rics in measuring the true economic impact of worldwide access to health and wellness services, truly transforming the business of health. Many of the earlier professional dia-logues involved heated debates about us-ing the term ‘medical tourism’ based upon an unwillingness to connect serious medical care with tourism.

How likely was it that someone receiving a knee replacement would be found zip lining in Costa Rica? That all depends on your definition of ‘tourism’. Whether a medical travel program is even needed is also a big topic of debate, primarily by stakeholders resisting investment in technology and tools used to improve and measure or improve efficiency and effectiveness of healthcare de-livery. There has been a ‘wild west’ approach to maintaining status quo and avoiding accountability. In fact, the European Parliament released a Policy Report defining medical tourism as a subset of health tourism and spa related wellness. They are interrelated and interconnected without a doubt. Yet the impact on tourism is prominent for a medical traveler with extended stays and daily in-destination spending.

These days, much funding for medical travel programs emanates from tourism dollars al-located in the public sector. We now see that the economic impact in tourism as a result of patient mobility as one of the best measurements to utilize in determining investment from a policy perspective.

First, we can recognize the important link be-tween various public sectors in health, hospitality, tourism, and economic development. Second, we can drive economic impact from one sector into the other for investment to create greater impact and fund programs that previously were not viable. Global Healthcare Resources developed a Medical Travel Calculator for planners and stake-holders to look at their health and tourism services and estimate total economic impact through job creation, taxes, and delivery of health and hospitality services.

Accountability is key

Increasingly payers such as insurers, employers and governments are using criteria that impact medical travelers and international patients in order to determine which hospitals will be included in their global medical networks. Factors such as quick access to treatments, international office efficiency, medical center dedication to international patients and servicing their medical needs, cultural competency and ability to coordinate logistical support are becoming nearly important as the quality of the medical outcomes when choosing where to send patients.Healthcare providers who neglect these areas will find themselves gradually relegated to the sidelines by payers seeking to provide a high-quality patient experience as well as a positive medical outcome.

While accrediting bodies such as Accreditation Canada and Joint Commission Inter-national have assisted medical travel destination sites to achieve a standard of care comparable to that found in accredited hospitals within those countries, the scope of the standards does not encompass all of the significant dimensions required for medical travel.

Competencies such as cultural sensibility, financial transactions, marketing and tour-ism, and travel, for example, directly impact medical travelers and must be addressed in order ensure the delivery of high-quality patient experience at each touchpoint along the care continuum. More national accreditation bodies such as National Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Health Care Providers (NABH) in India, the Malaysian Society for Quality in Health, the Korean Health Industry Development Institute, and others are taking strides to engage their stakeholders in medical travel accreditation and certification as valued-added investment in their health sec-tors.According to Karen Timmons, CEO of GHA, “Working with Global Healthcare Accreditation provides a unique opportunity to con-duct a deep dive into global/international patient service units and an opportunity to have an impact on improving the quality, safety and experience for all patients who travel for care. Additionally, because GHA focuses on the entire continuum, those business practices within an organization that impact the medical travel program, such as Marketing, Finance, and IT are included. Many leaders of organizations have shared that this component is very important to them, and GHA strives to ensure a GHA accredited organization receives solutions that impact not just patient outcomes, but business performance as well.”

Dr. Erik Fleischman, former international medical director of Bumrungrad International Hospital (BIH) stated, “BIH has been a leader in International Medical care outside the USA for over twenty years. We were the first hospital in Asia to receive Joint Com-mission International Certification (JCI) in 2002 and now we are also the first hospital to receive Global Healthcare Accreditation (GHA) in Asia. These important accreditations help us to become a quality and clinical excellence leader in the international medical care realm and show our equivalence in quality care with any great Western medical care system. GHA was particularly fitting for our institution as it is the only accreditation that helps assure quality care from the time a patient leaves their home to the time they return after medical care. We are a great hospital. We are even better after GHA.”

Public and private engagement

Good cooperation between the private and public sector in positioning a destination as a desirable medical tourism destination is extremely important. Proponents of public-private partnerships see that sustainability relies upon having a public policy and private engagement. Great partnerships between the public and private sector, like what we’ve seen in the United Arab Emirates, Thailand, Malaysia, Jordan, and South Korea, are seeing tremendous growth. such as in the Unit-ed Arab Emirates, Thailand, Malaysia, Jordan, and South Korea, for example.

In Global Healthcare Resources’ Global Buyers Report, safety and security was a No. 1 concern and & decisive factor on in influencing where buyers of healthcare refer their patients for care. Nations and organizations not addressing these concerns will fall short of success without addressing it with prospective patients. For a nation or city with safety issues promoting itself in medical tourism, it is essential to take an honest public opinion assessment on what is being done to assure the safety of visitors. There are real threats to security, such likeas terrorism and crime,, crime, etc. as well as other and then potential risks like mosquito-borne vi-ruses. All of this should be addressed transparently; the discussion should be held right from the onset to assure confidence that visitor safety is a top priority.

The International Healthcare Research Center and Global Healthcare Resources partnered to launch the Medical Tourism Index (MTI), which is now a peer- reviewed, academically validated tool thato measures the perception of a destination for medical tourism. While the MTI has just begun to explore its application in destination development strategic planning, IHRC plans to release the MTI every two years, expanding the consumer survey pool to new targeted groups (such as Chinese, Middle Easterners, Russians, etc) and CIS nations for comparison. Currently, MTI highlights the top 41 destinations for medical travel from the perspective of Americans. Since then, several regional surveys have developed, including an Arabic and & MENA survey, to confirm the MTI destinations were valid from the perspective of other continents.

From a government perspective, well-organized Framed properly, medical travel from a government perspective has the capacity to fund population health management and national health equity programs that are currently underfunded and underutilized. Global partners can serve as instigators of population health change and inspiration towards advancing global healthcare concerns such like as obesity, diabetes, and other lifestyle diseases. Additionally, advancements in prevention and personalized medicine through genomics should become the norm while curative care becomes more advanced. through the same science.

We have not yet measured the long- term impact of medical travel programs on improving access to improved quality of care and improving population health. This is our next decade of work. If medical travel pro-grams inbound can truly raise the standard of healthcare for local populations, every nation should be looking at the policy to develop and facilitate it.

Tools and technology

Technology and tools that provide greater access to care and enhance the patient experience are now the requisite, yet they’re still not the norm. Increasingly, traveling patients are becoming more informed and demanding more data in making decisions about their care. Current estimates for medical travel place the size of the industry at approximately USD $100 billion US dollars and growing, yet uniform definitions and data regarding the exact number of patients who travel, and their outcomes of care, (including both clinical and patient satisfaction), do not exist.

In the 2019 Medical Tourism Pulse Survey, almost Nearly 40 percent% of the medical travel professionals say they lack the technology necessary to grow their business or organization, and 43 percent% believe adequate medical record transfer is not available to protect the privacy of the patient, according to the Medical Tourism Pulse Survey. In an age of developing cures for cancer, how is it possible that we are unable to protect patient privacy or find a transfer solution for a universally accepted medical record?

Even worse, there is no consensus on how to define a medical traveler. Should a medical traveler be defined as only a patient who travels outside his/her country for care? Or should we also include tourists who get sick or injured and require medical care? What about foreign residents, employees, and expatriates? We cannot even begin to answer these questions or gather accurate data without agreement on this basic point. When some nations use the term ‘international patients’ and others ‘medical tourists,’, the dis-parity of information generates a lack of trust in the underlying data and then an ongoing lack of investment.

Accessing the patients

While cash-paying patients may be secured through search engine optimization and marketing, it is it hugely unreliable from an investment perspective as the primary source of referral; each new competitor comes into the market with similar marketing and tapping the same target markets. About 86 percent% of the professionals surveyed in the Medical Tourism Pulse Survey believe the information on their website is important when comparing healthcare providers, but only 51 percent% of companies receive their inquiries direct from consumers.

Business to business (B2B) and business to government (B2G) potential provides for direct contracting opportunities to grow the medical travel business and really advance healthcare worldwide through the strategic partnerships, affiliations, and capacity building joint ventures that are developing.

The Medical Tourism Association saw an opportunity to position itself as the voice of the medical tourism industry, with a primary goal to grow awareness of the business to business opportunities in medical travel. Its focus has been on building an immense buyer net-work to connect businesses together to grow opportunities, becoming MTA’s most successful niche as which no other company does this on a remotely similar scale.

The B2B space includes an employer or insurer who is incentivizing an plan member to travel to a Center of Excellence or an organization that they have contracted with for value-based purchasing. This may be domestic (within cities in a country), regional (like within the European Union for example), or international.
The needs of the traveling patient are immense and yet not enough attention is spent assuring that care continuum is safe and secure and leveraging that experience as a means of generating more patient volume. After all, the patient is our highest priority and humanity needs a far greater motivation to combine the art, the science and the business of health.

Become a “healthcare revolutionary”

After years of bringing innovation and disruption in healthcare, wellness, medical travel, benefits, and insurance, a lot of things have come full circle to reframe our thinking. We are innovating by convening the change agents from all over the world. ‘Healthcare revolutionaries’ are people committed to innovation, disrupting the space and the status quo.
Our world is not operating at its full potential because human beings are not operating at theirs.
We’re currently in the middle of a silent cultural revolution. It’s a revolution we’re only just beginning to recognize, affecting every single living person. This revolution is transforming our society to everyone’s benefit. It’s a call to every woman and man to rise to a new definition of leadership and create change in the world regarding health. Humanity needs far greater motivations that transcend our limited, precious time on earth – a call toh to truly contribute our best while we are here.
How do we do this as part of a digital health transformation? The global healthcare industry is rapidly advancing into new areas of technology, innovation, and disruption of medical travel. Yet, the one consistent theme throughout is the need to deliver top patient experience, offer price-sensitive and value-based specialized care, and the need for collaborative, consensus-based industry growth that involves public policy and private sector engagement.
In the meantime, you can be an agent of change in the medical tourism industry. You can be a healthcare revolutionary.

Renée-Marie Stephano

By making, the choice you can make your child start one-step ahead of real life.

We know you’re doing a great deal of research to give your baby the best gift, and I want to tell you that the RHAZES GLOBAL family is different from other companies.

Our differences, America, Britain and Turkey-based specially trained certified professional birth coach with the most important period of your life is to get your health and happi-ness of your baby in your arms.

Our birth coach (Doula) Tuğçe Atakan: “I give birth coaching services for all the families that I enter, and I provide counseling to all families about breastfeeding and baby care, and I give pre-and post-delivery preparatory pieces of training..

I give full support at any moment during your pregnancy as your birth coach. You will realize the importance of this support, especially when your pains start at 36 and 37 weeks. I can use different techniques for the comfort-able progression of birth, I can actively sup-port 15-25 hours of sleep from the moment of birth. I witness so beautiful births; I want to keep this excitement, happiness, curiosity and the privilege of witnessing the miracle of a new life coming to the world for every family I work with. It is a passion for me to tell women that birth is not a disease and to make them realize the power within them.

I accompany and teach mothers so that they can increase their confidence in their bodies and babies during their travels, and all I want is, no matter the way of birth, the moment of encounter with the baby must be eagerly anticipated, prepared and a perfect reunion”

What do we do as a Birth Coach (doula) service: we meet 4 times face to face during prenatal times during your pregnancy. Our goal is to learn your needs and priorities, to know if you have any worries or fears. This is how we can best work together with you. We talk about what you are most curious about, birth coping techniques, pregnancy pilates, breathing exercises, meditation, relaxation techniques, researching how mother relaxes, what we can do if you have a cesarean section, trying active birth positions, recognizing and choosing aromatherapy oils that we can use at birth, preparation of preferences, needs of the puerperium and breastfeeding tips.

When you decide to give birth in the United States, you have three options.

– The first thing that comes to mind is to go to the city you know or to undergo this process through intermediaries (often making mistakes).

– Your second option (the option you are most at risk of making mistakes) is to explore everything and embark on this adventure on your own.

– The third: EXPERIENCE is very important for birth in America. The most important thing to consider is actually EXPERIENCE. RHAZES GLOBAL team and our BIRTH COACH in America will not put you under the risk!

On the day of birth, we take you from your home to the hospital. We will always be there for you in communication with the nurses and the hospital.

You will not experience stress; you will give birth comfortably without thinking about the next step.                                                                                                                   From the moment your labor pains begin, after your baby is in your arms, we are actively supporting you for minimum 15 hours without going to sleep until you leave your birth room and settle in your private room.

• Hospitalization for 2 days at natural birth and 3 days at ce-sarean section.
• Ensuring all kinds of health checks and needs related to the baby and mother during the hospital stay.
• We visit every day during the hospital stay. We provide the necessary legal procedures to be initiated and, if necessary, private vehicle transfer support between the home and the hospital.
• Welcome, gift and package for your baby in the hospital.
• Provide your baby with a special car seat on the day of departure. (They do not allow the vehicle to leave the hospital without a seat)
• After leaving the hospital, we provide full support to the mother in the supply of medicines that mother needs to buy at the pharmacy.
• After leaving the hospital, we provide a private baby bed to your home.

 Heydar Aliyev Foundation is actively paricipating in the social life of not only Azerbaijan but also of many other countries. Alongside with the implementation of various charity projects and programs, the Foundation actively popularizes Azerbaijan in the world.

Azerbaijan is among the countries with widespread thalassemia. Over 200 children are annually born in the country with this disease. Taking the importance of the problem into consideration, the Heydar Aliyev Foundation started the implementation of in the name of “LIFE WITHOUT THALASSEMIA”; project in 2005. As part of this project Heydar Aliyev Foundation built the largest Thalassemia Center in the region to create a qualified center and blood bank in Azerbaijan, prepare highqualified personnel in the country, develop a voluntary donor service to provide safe and high quality blood to thalassemia-affected children, enlighten population to prevent the expansion of thalassemia and enhance cooperation with a number of states fighting thalassemia. Transplantation of bone marrow is carried out in this center for the first time in Azerbaijan. It is planned to implement the program on the eradication of thalassemia in Azerbaijan on a larger scale in the near future.                                                                                                                     Until April this year, 2959 people passed dispensary registration at the Thalassemia Centre, and they have been treated according to their degree of illness and provided with medicines. In the daytime hospital of the Centre, 976 patients are transfused packed red blood cells on a regular basis. In the first quarter of the current year, 6273 people applied to the Republican Thalassemia Centre, and 603 out of them came for the first time. 72 of them were registered for follow-up care. Over the course of three months of the year, 105 patients received in-patient treatment. Operations on bone marrow transplantation were carried out on 51 patients during the year.

Moreover, the foundation has been implementing the project within which the children under 14 suffering from diabetes are regularly provided with the necessary volume of insulin and summer camps are organized for them. Heydar Aliyev Foundation has built specialized medical institutions, including Children’s Psycho-Neurological Centre, Rehabilitation Centre for Children Needing Special Care and Rehabilitation Centre for Children with Down Syndrome.