Global Experts Meet in Manila for International Healthcare Travel Summit

Global Experts Meet in Manila for International Healthcare Travel Summit

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Reference:

Igor Dela Peña

(63 2) 910.8030 / (63) 908.2127155

igor.delapena@himcommunications.com

Global Experts Meet in Manila for International Healthcare Travel Summit

(08 September 2010, Manila, Philippines) Global experts in medical travel, wellness and retirement industries will be in Manila for the first international healthcare travel summit in Asia to be held from October 12-15, 2010 at Makati Shangri-La Hotel.

Through the International Summit on Medical Travel, Wellness and Retirement (IMWell Summit), prominent healthcare travel decision-makers in the world will meet with leaders and players from the region’s public and private sectors to help chart a unified direction and push for concerted actions to accelerate the growth of these industries over the next decade.

Some of these experts who will also help promote multilateral cooperation and dialogue among Asian and global healthcare providers, policy-makers and business leaders include Dr. Zadok Lempert, chairman of Pacific Asia Travel Association’s (PATA) Healthcare Travel Task Force and president of Bangkok-based MEDICO Services International and David Boucher, president of Companion Global Healthcare, Inc. of Blue Cross & Blue Shield, a major U.S. health insurance company based in South Carolina.

As Thai government tourism advisor and sustainable tourism professor, Lempert has helped position Thailand as a leading medical destination, while Boucher engages with 260 American and Canadian employers in search of lower healthcare costs through international medical travel.

Also taking part in the IMWell Summit are Dr. Raul Rodriguez and Dr. David Vequist IV, chairman of the advisory board and founder and director, respectively, of University of the Incarnate Word’s Center for Medical Tourism Research (CMTR) in Texas, U.S., the first academic medical tourism research center in the world; and Kemar Canlar and Morgan Pile, president and vice president, respectively, of U.S.-based Global Benefit Options, a consultancy firm that specializes in developing strategic Medical Tourism Benefit solutions for the US Insurance Market

Dr. Soe Nyunt-U, country representative to the Philippines of the World Health Organization (WHO), and other leading healthcare experts from the U.S., India, Thailand, Malaysia, United Arab Emirates, Taiwan, China, Germany, United Kingdom and Australia will be among the resource speakers and panelists at the IMWell Summit.

The four-day IMWell Summit will serve as a platform for an open exchange of insights and best practices, addressing various policy and infrastructural concerns and forging unity and synergy among leaders from healthcare, wellness, hospitality, travel, trade and retirement sectors and heads of government agencies.

With the theme “Global Healthcare: Vision 2020”, the IMWell Summit will start off with a closed-door Roundtable Discussion to be participated by representatives  from World Health Organization (WHO) and APEC economies who will provide inputs on trade in health services.   It will be followed by Plenary sessions on October 13 and 14, tackling topics such as global outlook, opportunities and risks in the healthcare travel and retirement market; regulations and guidelines for a sustainable healthcare/medical travel industry in the Asia Pacific region; best practices in regional markets; fostering mutual cooperation to facilitate borderless healthcare; investment and capacity building for establishing world-class healthcare destinations; and marketing to the international patients and silver market.

The Summit will also equip executives of healthcare organizations through a workshop on October 12 on achieving a “balanced score card” employing strategic performance management, while other participants engage in four simultaneous conferences on October 15 covering topics on Healthcare Quality, Marketing, Investment and Capacity-Building and Retirement that provide in-depth information on all aspects of healthcare travel and retirement migration.

Organized by HIM Communications, with knowledge partners HealthCORE and Asian Academy for Healthcare Executives, the Summit will bring together key policy-makers from the different regions which is supported locally by the Department of Tourism (DoT), Department of Health (DoH), Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA); and frontline healthcare, wellness and retirement organizations Retirement and Healthcare Coalition International (RHC), Health and Wellness Alliance of the Philippines (HEAL Philippines), Philippine Wellness and Spa Association (PhilWell).

Other participating industry players include the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) and members of the Joint Foreign Chambers (JFC), which include the European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (ECCP), American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (ACCP), Japanese Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (JCCP) and Korean Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (KCCP).

Expected to attend the event are trade attachés from various embassies, chief executive or operating officers and managing directors of companies, officials of healthcare organizations, medical directors, investors and entrepreneurs, healthcare professionals and educators.

Other attendees include owners, marketing and business development heads and other stakeholders of hospitals and clinics, spas and wellness centers, health and travel insurance companies, travel agencies and tour operators, hotels, airlines and other tourism providers, property developers, business process outsourcing centers, pharmaceutical companies and information technology firms.

For more information, please contact IMWell Summit Secretariat through (632) 910.8030, (632) 468.9999, mobile (63) 917.8147814, (63) 908.8887880, or email imwellsummit@himcommunications.com and log on to www.imwellsummit.com for a complete line-up of speakers and program details.