Renee-Marie Stephano, President of the Medical Tourism Association, Was the Keynote Speaker at the South Africa Health Tourism Conference

West Palm Beach, FL, August 06, 2009 --(PR.com)-- Renee-Marie Stephano, President of the Medical Tourism Association, was the keynote speaker at the South Africa Health Tourism Conference, which took place July 29th and 30th 2009. Renee spoke on “Creating Health Clusters ~ Putting your competition aside to promote your country.”

The Inaugural South African Health Tourism Congress (SAHTC) was held at the Sandton Convention Centre in Gauteng, South Africa on the 29th and 30th of July 2009. Medical Health Tourism describes the rapidly growing practice of traveling both within countries and across international borders to obtain health care and is mainly influenced by a) the high costs or lack of treatment options available in countries of origin and, b) centers of specialized medical excellence that attract patients to specific destinations. Typically the service includes cosmetic procedures, orthopedic, cardiac, oncology, pediatric and dental surgeries.

The Global Health Tourism market comprised over 19 million trips in 2005 with a total value of USD20 billion. Many countries are showing a double-digit growth in Health Tourism, which is forecasted to grow to 40 million trips, or 4 % of global tourism volume, by 2010.

The congress aimed to stimulate the inbound health tourism market in South Africa and foster greater sector co-operation and alignment. There is a lack of local affordable products that protect both medical practitioners and clients from malpractice issues. The congress examined international programs currently available and the Department of Health’s draft legislation with an impact on the growth of the private health care sector.

In conclusion to the congress, Cawe Mahlati, Congress Chairperson Advocate, said “The quality of the conversations at the Inaugural South African Health Tourism Congress confirmed our view that the invited speakers are indeed thought innovators in the Health Tourism Arena.”

The Medical Tourism Association is made up of the top international hospitals, healthcare providers, medical tourism facilitators, insurance companies, and other affiliated companies and members with the common goal of promoting the highest level of quality of healthcare to patients in a global environment. Our Association promotes the interests of its healthcare provider and medical tourism facilitators members. The Medical Tourism Association has three tenets: Transparency, Communication and Education.

The Medical Tourism Association seeks to provide transparency in both quality of care and pricing. Every day we see more and more that the globalization of healthcare has created a very flat world. We exchange technology, information, communication, physicians and patients. In order to ensure patient safety, it is our goal to create a transparency about the quality of healthcare that can be found in each country. With this, it is increasingly important to create a transparency in pricing as well so patients traveling overseas for care can be sure of what they are receiving without hidden costs or unforeseen expenses. The Medical Tourism Association is also working on the Quality of Care Project, which will change the way we look at the reporting of global healthcare statistics and the quality of care available at hospitals around the world.

###