Thailand has achieved its goal of becoming a medical tourism hub for the world and has been one for some time, according to David Boucher, chief business transformation officer of Bumrungrad Hospital.
Unlike many of the government's aspirational pronouncements of developing certain industries into global hubs as part of the Thailand 4.0 scheme, the medical tourism industry has already arrived. This is thanks in part to Bumrungrad, located in central Bangkok, being virtually synonymous with medical tourism itself.
"I have always thought of Thailand as the hub of medical tourism for the last 12 years," Mr Boucher said. "On the horizon we can work with the government to make this status stronger through relationships, cooperation and collegiality."
Speaking at the Foreign Affairs Ministry's CEO Forum yesterday, Mr Boucher touted the hospital's advancements such as a robot pharmacist and "smart" connected design.
Bumrungrad sees about 1.2 million patients a year, with 835,000 coming from Southeast Asia, 18,000 from Europe and 19,000 from North America. The greatest number of foreign visitors come from Myanmar, where medical services are poor, driving wealthy Burmese to seek medical care in Thailand.
The hospital's success came from being one of the first large international players to be accredited by the Joint Commission International, a global medical standards association, and management for decades steering the organisation towards medical tourism.
Medical tourism in Thailand became popular after the 1997 financial crisis, when the baht was weak and medical services comparatively cheap.
As Thailand's economy develops, international hospitals must rely on quality, not just price, to attract foreign patients. Bumrungrad seeks to accomplish this goal through technology and interconnectedness.
"Most of our robots are offstage and the patients don't even realise they are there," Mr Boucher said. "But we still need caring, compassionate human beings at the bedside."
At some point in the next two months Bumrungrad will launch its own mobile app. Patients can sign up for hospital checkups, speak to a doctor using video chat, get diagnosed and buy medicine with the app.
While most serious illnesses require a hospital visit, conditions such as dermatitis or conjunctivitis can easily be diagnosed online.
