
Over 5L med travellers visit India - niyazpk
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/Over-5L-medical-travellers-visit-India/articleshow/6648149.cms
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jgrahamc
5L means 5 Lakh. The Indian system of counting large numbers is distinct from
that familiar to most people in the West with thousands, millions, etc. In
India you'll see lakh (100,000) and crore (10,000,000) used everywhere.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_numbering_system>

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statictype
Also, after the first comma, the rest go after 2 digits. I've been in India
for 10 years and I'm still tripped by that.

A lakh is 1,00,000 A crore is 1,00,00,000

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blrgeek
Assembly line eye surgeries in India - <http://96.0.107.6/?q=node/view/1829>

I've read elsewhere that many medical students intern at Aravind Eye hospital
simply because they can see and treat more cases of a rare disease in one week
than they could in years in the developing world.

India has the potential to become the Medical tourist capital of the world.
And as with everything else here, there are hospitals which treat the ultra-
wealthy at international standard with the latest technology, and absolute
hell-holes catering to the poorest destitutes. They may even be neighbours.

The entire system is very screwed up by the pathetically low number of doctors
(per capita) we produce every year on the one hand, the vanishingly small
number of openings for MDs, and the ridiculously small pay for a doctor
without an MD degree. A friend of mine has been trying without success for 4
years to get an MD position.

Medical tourists are good and bad. Good because of the forex inflow. Bad
because they take away meager domestic capacity.

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kranner
For anyone confused about doctors without MD degrees, note that in India the
first medical degree is the MBBS, equivalent to the US 'MD'. The Indian 'MD'
is a hospital-based postgraduate degree.

You can make more in a call centre than as a doctor who is 'just MBBS'.

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gamble
How many medical tourists are people with no connection to the host country
purely there to find cheap care? My impression is that medical tourism is more
talked about in America than practiced.

The subtext to healthcare discussions in the US always seems to be that no
matter how bad things are in America, healthcare elsewhere _must_ be a
disaster. Also, Americans either have health insurance or they tend not to be
in a position to pay at all, even if the procedure is significantly less
expensive than at home.

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AHarbs
interesting. is it time to develop efficient medical apps?

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borisk
There were many medical apps developed back in the 80s, but ... doctors&co.
don't wont to loose their lifestyle to some stupid computers.

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nimrody
Unfortunately, the article fails to list the _origin_ of these travelers. I
suspect most are from the developing countries in the area.

[One exception may be the "baby production industry". India provides
inexpensive surrogacy services. Some call this an "industry"...]

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borisk
Most patients are from US and West Europe.

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hugh3
Where did you get that from?

