Here and abroad, I'm asked frequently how the proposed healthcare reform measures of the Obama administration will affect Americans heading overseas for medical services. Here in the US, I've even heard from otherwise intelligent citizens who are somehow expecting the new legislation to subsidize all their medical bills (including one patient who's holding out for a free facelift and tummy tuck as soon as the measures are signed into law!).

While I am no scholar on this subject, we need look no further than the best universal healthcare systems in other countries. None are perfect. Canada and the UK, for example, while offering general care for all, are serving up long waits for surgeries, prompting more medical travel every year. Other countries, including Germany and Sweden, are burdened by systemic inefficiencies and the increasing taxes needed to pay the ever-increasing healthcare bills.

The short answer is this: forces larger than healthcare reform are driving the rise of international health travel. These include increasing costs of healthcare in developed nations; rising worldwide numbers of affluent baby boomers aging into expensive, elective treatments; patients seeking specialties and subspecialties not available in their homelands; patients wishing to avoid long waits for procedures; wellness travelers seeking high-quality preventive care—the list goes on. As the irreversible trend of globalized healthcare continues, expect to see more patients looking well beyond their national borders for their medical care.

For those who think of Patients Beyond Borders as only a publisher of books for distribution into retail stores, think again. Our international Second Edition and our country-specific series—including Singapore, Taiwan, Korea, and Malaysia, and soon India, Turkey, and Thailand—are now available on Kindle, Sony Reader, iPhone, in digital format at most major reference libraries worldwide, direct to the consumer through various eBook vendors, and soon through a wide array of online search applications. All Patients Beyond Borders editions are available in all five countries served by Amazon.

Since the founding of our company, we've been quite cognizant of the powerful one-two punch that results from the synergy of print and retail distribution combined with new, consumer-empowering online search and information tools. We intend to be present wherever those opportunities arise, toward helping healthcare consumers make the best possible choices about their procedures, their international hospitals, and the doctors they engage, while also helping the best international hospitals and medical facilities make themselves known in the global healthcare community, raise awareness about their offerings, and build their brands.

Interested in seeing how it all fits together? We've put together a visual showing the many and varied ways we provide support for health travelers.

Next steps: With Patients Beyond Borders now the most recognized, trusted source of healthcare travel information for consumers, we're in a unique position to work with leading search engines, health portals, and online travel sites in Asia, the European Union, Latin America, and North America to forge exciting new relationships directly engaged in medical and healthcare travel. Over the next few months, consumers seeking information about hospitals, destinations, doctors, and procedures will have increasing access to the considerable data we've compiled in the creation of our international Second Edition and country-specific editions, and in the new partnerships we're forging with third parties (see In the Spotlight below).

We're pleased to let you know the new Patients Beyond Borders site carries new features that reflect our growing product offerings and the many new ways the world has concocted for us all to communicate with one another.

Our home page, www.patientsbeyondborders.com, now includes the latest Twitter feeds, links to Facebook, and other social and business networking sites, allowing visitors a useful at-a-glance "dashboard" of our activities.

Perhaps more importantly, patients, industry leaders, and media alike will have increasing online access to information about the world's leading medical travel destinations and hospitals featured in the Patients Beyond Borders country-specific editions. You'll also have access to more information about the newest specialty procedures and travel details related to medical tourism.

We're always happy to hear from you, especially with comments or suggestions as to how we can do better.

As medical tourism and international health travel continue to heat up, we at Patients Beyond Borders have become the leading clearinghouse for data on this growing sector. We're in constant contact with print and broadcast media, research firms, tourism boards, ministries of health, trade development commissions, and global healthcare organizations to gather and disseminate the most current, reliable information available about medical tourism—sharing data, images, and other materials on hospitals, specialties, comparative costs, accreditation, and more.

If your organization has news to share with us, please make sure we're on your media release list. You can email newsletters, releases, or other information to our Communications Manager, Judy Orchard, at jorchard@healthtraveler.net. We are particularly interested, for example, in any new specialties your hospital might be offering, accreditation updates, or any new medical or healthcare trend you may wish to share with us and the world. For any questions, please contact Judy.

The New Straits Times, one of Southeast Asia's largest dailies, recently referred to Patients Beyond Borders as "the Lonely Planet of healthcare tourism." With ten editions either in print or in the works in less than three years, and as longtime fans of Lonely Planet, we're happy for the comparison.... Thanks, NST!

We're always pleased to hear from you with any comments or questions. You can reach me at jwoodman@healthtraveler.net.

All best, Joe

Patients Beyond Borders: Malaysia Edition was formally launched at the APHM Annual Conference in Kuala Lumpur on 23 July, 2009, to a gratifying display of unity from the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Tourism, and Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE), as well as specially invited guests from the US, the UK, Japan, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Singapore, and Thailand. The ISQua President-elect, former President, and current President were present, along with executives from all of the top international Malaysian hospitals. Continue reading

Healthy Travel Media is pleased to announce that the newly released Patients Beyond Borders: Malaysia Edition is now available as an eBook on Lulu.com as well as in print at all online retail outlets, such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble, both domestically and abroad. This latest entrant to the Patients Beyond Borders series of country-specific editions will soon be available to all Kindle and Sony Digital Book owners, as well as downloadable to iPhone and other mobile devices. Continue reading

Healthy Travel Media and the Tourism Authority of Thailand jointly announce the launch of Patients Beyond Borders: Thailand Edition, to be published in English for international distribution in September 2009. Continue reading

Patients Beyond Borders, one of the most recognized names in the medical travel industry, has agreed to be a content partner for Medeguide, a new Web portal to help patients connect with doctors online. Continue reading

Examiner.com, 3 August 2009

"Why spend $160,000 on heart valve replacement surgery in Boston when the same procedure costs as little as $8,000 in India or a $43,000 hip replacement in New York when it can be done in Thailand for about $12,000?" Continue reading

Smart Money, 12 June 2009

"The overseas surgery industry, once a slightly scary medical niche, has taken off to a remarkable degree, its rise fueled by the continued rise in health care costs and by an economy that is creating an army of underinsured Americans looking for bargains." Continue reading

Saudi Gazette, 14 July 2009

"Saudi Arabia has a solid track record of growth in the outbound tourism sector, with medical travelers accounting for a significant portion of outbound tourists ..." Continue reading

New Straits Times, 7 July 2009

"Malaysia is set to raise its profile in healthcare travel through an international guide on medical services in the country." Continue reading

National Geographic Adventure, 12 June 2009

"New York Times columnist Michelle Higgins says tourists can grab last-minute bargains if they act quickly, and Josef Woodman, the author of Patients Beyond Borders, gives advice on how tourists can protect their immune systems on the road." Continue reading

PBB: Malaysia Edition book launch, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Exterior view, Gleneagles Medical Center, Penang, Malaysia

Lobby, Gleneagles Medical Center, Penang, Malaysia

Exterior view, Prince Court Medical Center, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Outpatient Center, Bumrungrad International Hospital, Bangkok, Thailand

Patient room, Bangkok International Hospital, Bangkok, Thailand

Nurses station, Yanhee International Hospital, Bangkok, Thailand