The Medical Tourism Association Participates in the Service Summit and FAM Tour in Guatemala

West Palm Beach, FL, September 18, 2009 --(PR.com)-- The Medical Tourism Association was pleased to participate in this year’s Service Summit and Familiarization “FAM” tour in the beautiful country of Guatemala. Facilitators from Canada and United States of America were in attendance. Jonathan Edelheit, the Chief Executive Officer of the MTA, spoke at the Summit on the Opportunities in Medical Tourism in the US Marketplace. “This is an excellent opportunity for Guatemala to shine in the medical tourism industry through its dedication to the promotion of quality healthcare and its natural ecotourism industry,” he stated.

The Guatemala Exporters Association, AGEXPORT, with the goal of promoting Guatemala as a completive country for health and wellness tourism, presented the Service Summit. The conference included a program with renowned international and local speakers, international and local companies, and included specialized business Matchmaking Sessions. The President of Guatemala, Ing. Alvaro Colom, gave an opening speech expressing his support of the government in making Guatemala a top destination.

Following the Service Summit, participants were able to join a FAM tour of all the companies and providers in the health and wellness sector of Guatemala. The tour included visits to some of the hospitals and clinics in the country including Renova, Centro Medico Hospital, Hospital Multimedica, Centro Dental, Vision Integral, Hope International, Herrera Llerandi Hospital, Unidental, CER, Grupo Dental, Smile Factory and Dental Care Guatemala. Providers also got a chance to meet one on one with other local participants in the Health and Wellness Tourism Commission including Novaesthetics, Top Medical Trips, CEDAF, Cardio Care, TecniScan, Clarion Suites and the airline sponsor TACA. The tour ended with a day of tourism in Antigua to explore the beauty that Guatemala offers. The FAM tour was lead by the tourism company Turitran, who guided the group throughout the four days provided culture and history of the country throughout the day.

Issue 13 of the Medical Tourism Magazine will be featuring coverage of this event and showcase extensive coverage of the FAM tour.

Guatemala is destined to position itself as one of the major players in the Health and Wellness sector of the Medical Tourism Industry.

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. Their 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. They exchange technology, information, communication, physicians and patients. In order to ensure patient safety, it is their 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.

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