December 10, 2020 - Total Croatia News is pleased to announce the results of a successful night in Malaysia at the MTMA 2020 media awards in Kuala Lumpur. 

The second Medical Travel Media Awards, organised by the Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council, took place earlier today in an online ceremony in Kuala Lumpur. 

The awards, aimed at recognising journalistic efforts at promoting health tourism in Malaysia, are the first such global awards in the industry, with award categories for both local and international journalists in the categories of best print feature, best broadcast feature, best online feature, best editorial team, and medical travel journalist of the year.  

This year's ceremony attracted more than 400 entries from 11 countries, significantly up on the 250 submissions in the inaugural event at MTMA 2019 16 months ago.  

It was a good night for TCN, with CEO Paul Bradbury winning the MTMA 2020 International Medical Travel Journalist of the Year, ahead of other finalists, Neang Sopheap from the Phnom Penh Post in Cambodia and Jannatul Islam form the Daily Sun in Bangladesh.   

TCN also had two entries in the five finalists for best online feature - Inna Bergman on the Origins and Rise of Israel as a Medical Tourism Destination and Malaysia Healthcare Marvel Wins Big at IMTJ 2019 Berlin Medical Tourism Awards.

TCN also made the final three for Best Editorial Team of the Year.  

The online MTMA 2020 awards were a necessary precaution due to the global pandemic and in contrast to the 2019 event, in which Bradbury also won an award, for Best Online Feature of the Year. 

The Malaysian health tourism travel story is one of the most inspirational in this rapidly expanding industry, and the Malaysian Healthcare Travel Council have become known as one of the innovative pioneers of the industry, led by inspirational CEO Sherene Azli. 

You can learn more about the MTMA 2020 awards on the official website. 

December 5, 2019 - An exceptional medical conference in Berlin culminates with the Malaysia healthcare marvel winning big at IMTJ 2019.  

Life as a TCN journalist takes me to the most unlikely of places, something I was reflecting on as I found myself sitting on a round table dentistry panel with eminent dentists from the likes of Turkey, Hungary and Romania in Berlin this week. Fun fact from that round table - there is an unpronounceable Hungarian town close to the airports of Vienna and Bratislava which has a population of 32,000 and an astonishing 450 dentists, one for every 85 inhabitants. A powerhouse of European dental tourism.  

Having followed the Croatian medial tourism industry closely for the last two years, I was curious to see how the stars of Croatia would perform on the international stage. It is one thing hearing about how good a clinic is from within Croatia, but pitching them against the world heavyweights could be an entirely different story. I didn't have long to find out, as Bagatin Clinic from Zagreb and Split was crowned International Cosmetic Surgery Clinic of the Year. Congratulations! Having travelled up from Croatia with Ognjen and Andrea and following their journey closely for over two years, it was a moment of immense pride, and they rightly revelled in their considerable achievement. 

But when it came to naming the stars of the conference - on so many levels - there was only one winner. Malaysia.

Quite apart from the fact that the Malaysians are by far the most exotic participants to such conferences due to their delightful and varied traditional attire, who else would think of bringing a walking mascot to an event like this. 

We will come to the awards presented in a moment, but two unacknowledged awards should also be mentioned here. The presentation which won the most applause, and the most inspiring presentation of the conference came from one of the most popular ladies on the medical tourism circuit, the energetic CEO of Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council, Sherene Azli. This was the second time I had heard Sherene present, and the effect was much the same as the first, a year ago in Crikvenica.  

So what is the key to Malaysia's success? That is a topic for another article, but I liked one of the questions posed from the audience in the Q & A session after Sherene's presentation -  Is discipline and lack of ego the ultimate secret to Malaysia's success?

To be discussed. 

One thing I like very much about Malaysia's approach to the industry is their willingness to share best practices and information to help others grow. There is a really fascinating story in how Malaysia is developing its medical tourism niche in China, focused specifically on fertility treatment following China's ending of its one child policy.  There was time in between the presentations to catch up with their experts on the finer details. A big feature on this on TCN soon.  

And so to the awards... Just how well did Malaysia do? I hand you over to the photos and commentary of the Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council Facebook page:

Put your hands together for Thomson Hospital Kota Damansara on winning the Best Quality Initiative award at the IMTJ Awards 2019! Over the past decade, Malaysia Healthcare has committed to providing a seamless end-to-end healthcare journey for all patients who seek medical treatments in Malaysia. Malaysia Healthcare is proud to have Thomson Hospital Kota Damansara as one of the many private Malaysian healthcare providers dedicated to providing Quality Care for Your Peace of Mind.

 Congratulations to TMC Fertility on receiving the award for International Fertility Clinic of the Year at the IMTJ Awards 2019! Malaysia Healthcare’s healthcare providers have been providing world-class quality healthcare treatments, earning the trust of many healthcare travellers over the years. Gunning towards better services, Malaysia Healthcare’s member hospitals have so much more in store come 2020 for the Malaysia Year of Healthcare Travel 2020 campaign. Malaysia Healthcare is proud to have TMC Fertility as part of the many private Malaysian healthcare providers dedicated to providing Quality Care for Your Peace of Mind.

Malaysia received a Highly Commended acknowledgement as the Destination of the Year for healthcare travel at the International Medical Travel Journal Awards 2019! Malaysia Healthcare’s unwavering dedication towards providing a seamless healthcare journey for all who seek medical treatment from us has earned the trust of many and keeps them returning to our shores. A big CONGRATULATIONS goes out to all players along the healthcare travel value chain: private Malaysian healthcare providers, ministries and government agencies, as well as private players. Malaysia Healthcare is complete with your support and tenacity for better healthcare travel service. Truly, Malaysia is the World’s Healthcare Marvel.

With private-public partnerships as the wind in our sails, MHTC has once again claimed the title of Cluster of the Year for healthcare travel at the International Medical Travel Journal Awards 2019! Committed to streamlining public and private players along the healthcare value chain towards a concerted effort in building the industry, MHTC celebrates this victory with all players who have collaborated and supported Malaysia Healthcare’s growth. We only move forward in 2020 to make Malaysia known as the World’s Healthcare Marvel.

All in all, it was a good night for Malaysia Healthcare at the International Medical Travel Journal - IMTJ Awards 2019. Nothing but smiles for us! Leading up to 2020, Malaysia Healthcare is gearing up to host the Malaysia Year of Healthcare Travel 2020 campaign, where we will showcase Malaysia as the World's Healthcare Marvel!

Not surprisingly, the smashing success was big news back in Kuala Lumpur and made the national news.  

A superb event overall, and an eye-opener for this Croatia-centric journalist. You can get a better feel of IMTJ 2019 in the official video of the event, just released, above. 

And to learn more about the Croatian healthcare marvel and International Cosmetic Surgery Clinic of the Year, here is TCN's report on Bagatin Clinic's success in Berlin. 

November 22, 2019 - The medical tourism industry is expanding rapidly, with niche specialties emerging in certain destinations. Niches such as dialysis tourism in Sabah in Eastern Malaysia.

Life as a blogger turned journalist is never dull, and I have learned to expect the unexpected each day, but there are some things in life that you really don't expect. 

If someone had told me, for example, that I would be on a plane to Malaysia this summer, I would have told them they were crazy. But there it was, an invitation from the Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council to attend the first-ever Medical Travel Media Awards in Kuala Lumpur. It was an invitation my wife and I were both surprised at and delighted to accept. I had been very curious about Malaysia and its health tourism since I first heard about it a year ago at the Crikvenica International Health Tourism conference after first listening to and then interviewing Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council CEO, Sherene Azli. 

Sherene's fantastic presentation on how all the Malaysian stakeholders had come together in a public-private partnership to develop a national brand and deliver high-class product was beautifully delivered and left a lot of medical tourism stakeholders from Croatian looking on with envy. I was delighted to accept an offer of 5 days touring Malaysia and some of its medical facilities as part of my trip. 

One of the things that impressed me about Sherene's presentation was the efforts Malaysia is putting into patient comfort and ease of travel. Apparently, they had a fast-track passport procedure for medical tourism guests, even a dedicated medical tourism arrivals hall, from where transfers, including wheelchair assistance, are there to facilitate immediate transfer to the clinic. Although my destination was the hotel and not a clinic, the smoothness of transfer and hospitable welcome was a great start after a long flight. 

It was lovely to see Sherene again - she is a wonderful and very inspirational lady - and I certainly did not expect to in such circumstances. I certainly did not expect to win the award for Best International Online Feature, but I will take it - thank you!

And while it was obviously nice to win some journalistic recognition, I was actually more keen to see Malaysia itself and learn more about its medical tourism industry. Over the coming weeks, I will be publishing a few articles on some of the initiatives going on in Malaysia, from the fascinating work at the Malaysia National Heart Institute in Kuala Lumpur, to niche tourism concepts that I had never heard of before, such as dialysis tourism. 

Yes, dialysis tourism. The first time I heard the term 'dialysis tourism' was shortly after arriving at KPJ Sabah in Kota Kinabalu, the first clinic to introduce it to Malaysia. 

My association with medical tourism is now about two years old, and although I have learned a lot following the potential of the medical tourism industry, I have much more still to learn, and so trips like this are a real education. There is a lot of rubbish written about medical tourism, and a lot of generalities. It was when reading IMTJ editor Keith Pollard's blog about an article I had written about Zagreb's strategic plan which got me thinking about niche medical tourism a little more. In the article, he wrote:

The services to be promoted are listed as:

Dentistry, cosmetic surgery, cosmetic/aesthetic services, ophthalmology, internal medicine, orthopaedics and executive health checks. Well, that’s seven services embracing a plethora of healthcare activity. In which of these does Zagreb have real strengths?

49 market niches. Seven markets, seven very broad services. That’s 49 market niches. E.g. Let’s sell:

Executive health checks to the UAE. Ophthalmology to AustriaOrthopaedics to Russia…and 46 others. Of these 49, which should Zagreb pursue and which are the priorities?

Malaysia's health tourism industry is much more cohesive and developed than back home in Croatia, and there is plenty to learn and replicate, such as identifying and developing niches.

Why dialysis tourism, and why only in Sabah, on the island of Borneo? The very helpful team at KPJ explained that while Indonesia is the main market for medical tourists, they were also looking to attract the wealthy medical tourists from Brunei, which has sufficient dialysis needs to make it an interesting market. That, as well as the fact that the lack of reliable and available dialysis facilities for tourist use means that travel options for people needing dialysis treatment - and their families - is extremely restricted. 

What if those high-quality facilities were made available in a top tourist resort such as Sabah, affording a new freedom of travel and tourism experience for those on dialysis, and their families? The concept made complete sense when it was presented, and a quick Google search afterwards showed that while dialysis tourism in Malaysia was not unique, there were actually relatively few places offering it. Indeed, looking at IMTJ listings for dialysis tourism yielded just one listing, in the UK. 

But KPJ Sabah is not content with just offering basic dialysis tourism - there are also sessions of dialysis kinesiology, a concept which was also new to me. Rather than embarrass myself trying to explain, why not learn more from a professional - Dr Kenneth Wu with the video explanation above.

And KPJ Sabah is not alone in its dialysis tourism offer. Gleneagles opened recently in Kota Kinabalu and is also offering dialysis tourism - here is their dedicated room, above.

And there is certainly market potential. According to Kidney.org:

Over 2 million people worldwide currently receive treatment with dialysis or a kidney transplant to stay alive, yet this number may only represent 10% of people who actually need treatment to live.

 Of the 2 million people who receive treatment for kidney failure, the majority are treated in only five countries – the United States, Japan, Germany, Brazil, and Italy. These five countries represent only 12% of the world population. Only 20% are treated in about 100 developing countries that make up over 50% of the world population.

The facilities in both centres were excellent, and the accommodation was extremely clean and comfortable, with lovely views - especially for golf lovers at Gleneagles - an 18-hole course awaited at the end of the garden. 

It is certainly niche tourism, but an interesting concept to develop, and certainly one which could bring new freedom to those reliant on dialysis treatment. 

And if you are looking for a spectacular destination to explore with the knowledge that your dialysis needs are covered to a very high and professional standard, Sabah is stunning. Check out the video below for a flora and fauna rain forest feast. Highly recommended.  

To learn more about dialysis tourism and other medical tourism options in Malaysia, visit the Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council website.