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A new class of healthcare consumer–those seeking low-cost surgery overseas–has created a demand for reliable information. MedTripInfo.com has sprung up to provide it.
Tens, if not hundreds of thousands of Americans travel to other countries each year for lower-cost healthcare. Some reports place the number upwards of 250,000. Accurate statistics are extremely hard to come by. One thing that is known, however, is the incredibly important role that the Internet plays in so-called medical tourism.Often, the first thing a patient does when searching foreign healthcare options is to begin an extensive Web search.
“Medical tourism entails the splicing of two sectors, medicine and tourism,” write Milika and Karla Bookman in their report “Medical Tourism in Developing Countries,” which came out this year. “Both are labor intensive and both rely heavily on the Internet to spread information.”
When potential patients hit the Web, they are confronted with a broad range of slick websites posted by clinics from Bangkok to Brazil, often touting luxury recovery facilities in a resort-like setting, top-quality doctors and prices far lower than those available in the U.S. So how does one separate the legit from the shoddy? An appealing front-end website does not a qualified clinic make.
That’s where consultant David Williams’ site, MedTripInfo.com comes in.
Top 9 gifts for online journalists
November 26, 2007 in Commentary, Journalism, OJR, Online Media | Leave a comment
Commentary: ‘Tis the season for gratuitous gadget ogling. OJR staffer Noah Barron gives you a seasonal roster of the year’s hottest toys for techno-savvy reporters.
By Noah Barron
Being an online journalist is sort of the perfect storm on your wallet. It’s not the most lucrative of professions and you need/want/can’t resist keeping up with the latest cool stuff. But luckily, the Internet takes care of its own. I’ve compiled a list of nine (because 10 was too many) awesome products, some technological, some lifestyle-oriented, that I think make great gifts for online journalists and bloggers.For the most part, they’re pretty affordable. And the stuff that’s expensive is worth it, in this reporter’s humble opinion. The methodology for gathering the gear? Pretty casual–mostly I asked my working journalist friends, Googled for slick gadgets and lauded gear that I own and use myself (or want desperately but can’t quite afford). Just to be clear, I’m not hyping this stuff for personal gain of any kind–these are actual products I like, use or want. Nobody gave me free stuff or anything. (Which is a bummer, really.)
Read more at OJR.org.