Medical tourism is not something that has begun just recently. Earlier too people used to travel long distances for health. However, its conceptualization is new and so is its wide acceptance and popularity. Patients love the touch of tourism that has been added to health care and are not hesitant to travel across the globe to experience this phenomenon.

The medical tourism hot spots in different parts of the world have been gaining immensely too as patients from around the globe flock to these countries to get world class yet affordable medical treatment. The medical tourism industry is expected to cross US$60 million by the year 2012 and its is only going to get better from there. People from United States and other western nations flock to Asian medical tourism hot spots like India, China, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand to get affordable treatments and travel at the same time.

Today, close to 6 million US patients travel abroad for a broad spectrum of health care treatments and surgeries and this number is expected to grow by manifolds in the coming years. Negative factors like lack of post-operative care, infections and negligence, which have been major causes of worry for the patients from western country till now, have been easily done away with. The medical facilities in Asia, Latin America and Middle East are at par with the world, their surgeons are internationally trained and their techniques are up-to-date.The sophisticated research work going on in every field of medicine today is providing a great impetus to the future growth of medical tourism. The latest developments in the fields of treatments and diagnosis has boosted the confidence of patients who are now ready to cross borders and get the best of treatments done at most pocket friendly prices.

Reference: http://ezinearticles.com/?Medical-Tourism:-Yesterday,-Today-and-Tomorrow&id=6535953