Let's go Global! Universal! Galactic! with medical tourism

The escalation of superlatives in medical tourism is spiraling to ridiculous heights. Not only do we now have global healthcare - formerly the purview of such august institutions as the World Health Organization, and well-financed philanthropic organizations like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

We now have a medical tourism research center. It's about time, I thought, when I first read of it. Let's get some real studies done. Let's track some real data. Let's put an end to these crazy numbers and get someone, somewhere to find out the true facts.

Seems this is not going to happen. Under the guise of medical tourism research, I received an email that will pay me US$10 to answer survey questions about potential medical travelers. Not just any travelers, but travelers who want to go to Korea.

"We'll pay you $10 for completing the survey!" they shout. "All data will be collect4d and analyzed by the Center for Medical Tourism Research" and they point out it's "an academic research center."

Excuse me. I think the university this apparent "academic research center" is affiliated with should hang its head in shame if this is an example of the quality of research produced at this university.

If you want 10 bucks, or want to see how NOT to construct a survey, here's the link to it:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/GTSRSDT

Let's look further at the Center for Medical Tourism Research, which is a partnership between the University of the Incarnate Word and the Medical Tourism Association.

The director of the Center for Medical Tourism Research is David G. Vequist IV, Ph.D. who on the website is "regarded as one of the leading academic speakers and authors on medical tourism." Hello? Who? Google Dr. Vequist. He is described as an academic whose background is information technology and human resources? Google Dr. Vequist, and you find someone who has co-written with university students 2-page monographs on countries including South Korea and Turkey for the Medical Tourism magazine.

Dr. Vequist, we don't know each other and have never met. But please, do you really consider yourself to be a leading medical tourism authority? How many countries have you visited? How many patients have you counseled? How many foreign hospitals have you personally surveyed? How many books on medical tourism have you written?

May I nominate an academic who may be a medical tourism authority? Dr. Milica Bookman is an economist at St. Joseph's University, author of 9 books including Medical Tourism in Developing Countries and recipient of the Tengelmann Award for excellence in research.

Now that's what I call a "leading author on medical tourism."