A top-class medical university and a shrine designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site are teaming up to establish an organization promoting “medical tourism” geared toward wealthy Chinese tourists and other foreign visitors.
Dokkyo Medical University’s Nikko Medical Center — which along with Nikko Toshogu, a shrine dedicated to the founder of the Tokugawa shogunate, has taken a central role in the launch of the International Association of Tourism Medicine (IATM) — partnered with a local hotel in the Kinugawa hot spring resort in 2007 to offer package physical exams and accommodations to visitors. Four Chinese visitors have thus far visited the medical tourism department, which was set up this past April and is staffed with a resident Chinese nurse.
According to Takaaki Nakamoto, director of the university’s Nikko Medical Center, medical facilities in major Chinese cities like Shanghai are not much different from those in Japan, but the quality of medical technology and level of dependability are considered higher in Japanese hospitals.
The Nikko Medical Center has entered a collaborative arrangement with Tongji University Hospital in Shanghai, establishing a system for follow-up monitoring of their patients after they return to China. But because comprehensive medical examinations are not yet widely available in China, there have been misunderstandings in which Chinese patients have demanded not just check-ups during their stay in Japan but treatment as well.
Consequently, it was decided that a forum in which healthcare providers and other involved parties could review case studies and exchange information was crucial in establishing a full-scale medical tourism industry. Steps have since been taken toward the founding of IATM with plans to standardize the content of physical exams at all participating hospitals and collaborate with travel agencies in the future.
Around 180 people involved in medical care, nursing care, education, and the hotel industry will attend the inaugural meeting of the organization on Oct. 9, set to take place at Nikko Toshogu.
“Management of infectious diseases and other risks, as well as the provision of interpretation services are some of the issues we still need to address with regards to medical tourism,” says Nakamoto. “We hope to identify the state of affairs in various regions and go on to solve each problem.”
The Mainich