Source: NOWnews.com, July 4, 2014 20:02
 

To promote medical tourism and high-end dental service, Tainan City’s Department of Health dispatched a delegation with representatives from Chi Mei Hospital and Far Eastern Dental Clinic to Tianjin, China, aiming to enhance Tainan’s medical competitiveness internationally and assist the City’s medical businesses to successfully expand to the Mainland market.
 

Wun-Sheng Li, reports from Tainan

To promote medical tourism and high-end dental service, Tainan City’s Department of Health (DOH) organized a delegation with representatives from Chi Mei Hospital and Far Eastern Dental Clinic to Tianjin, China. With an overall plan focusing on promoting a health and beauty tour to Tainan, the effort aimed to enhance Tainan’s medical competitiveness internationally and assist the City’s medical businesses to successfully expand to the Mainland market.
 

According to the DOH, commissioned by the Bureau of Foreign Trade under the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the ‘2014 Tianjin Taiwan Trade Fair Health and Beauty Image House’ was organized by the Taiwan Trade Center with the assistance of Tainan City’s DOH. The participating Tainan medical team was made up of members from Chi Mei Hospital and Far Eastern Dental Clinic, to build up Tainan’s medical brands and promote the quality medical services of Taiwan.
 

The DOH noted that Tianjin is an international port city with a population of about 12 million and an average GDP of US$16,975, currently the highest in Mainland China. Its extensive and powerful consumption market has made it an important target city for Taiwan's medical service industry. There are nearly ten direct flights between Taiwan and Tianjin every week; the convenience of  transport together with multiple purposes to Taiwan such as business trip, health examination, beauty service, tourism, and incentive tour for employees, have increasingly boosted up the number of Tianjin’s visitors and tours to Taiwan. The ‘Health and Beauty Image House’ in the exhibition has drawn substantial interest and a lively exchange on the site.
 

The marketing of Chi Mei Hospital focused on advanced health examination, genetic test, aesthetic medicine, and intensive care. Director of International Affairs Office of Chi Mei Hospital Shou-Yong Huang said, Taiwan's medical services are equipped with world-class technology and compatible to those in Europe and America. Among the world's top 200 hospitals 14 are in Taiwan, only next to the United States and Germany and ranking third in the world. In terms of hospital density, Taiwan ranks second in the world. The competitive advantage of Tainan City lies in the fact that its leaders mostly come from a medical background; its promotion of medical tourism is therefore beyond comparison by other counties and cities with regards to professionalism.
 

Huang gave an example of a Mainland Chinese patient being diagnosed with severe disease by a Tier-3, Class-A hospital in China. During his treatment he was drawn dozens of tubes of blood for repetitive examination and still misdiagnosed as suffering from systemic lupus erythematosus, taking countless doses of drug in vain and being hospitalized dozens of days. After he was referred to Chi Mei Hospital, only with one tube of blood the specialists in Taiwan found that he only suffered from mild Sjogren's syndrome.
 

Dental representative of the Tainan delegation is the Shanhua Dental Hospital of the Far Eastern Dental Group. Head of the hospital Meng-Ru Lin said, the healthcare industry in Taiwan is rather competitive, owning core competencies in both medical technology and hospital environment. In terms of professional dedication, reasonable charges, language advantage, and doctor-patient communication, we are more advantageous than other Asian countries. According to the British magazine, the Economist, Taiwan ranks second in the world health environmental indicators, second only to Sweden.
 

Dr. Lin stressed that the opportunity for dentistry to create medical tourism is its latest 3D technology. The most advanced 3D tooth carving technology currently used in Europe and America can complete the treatment of all-ceramic crown, caries patch, and ceramic veneer on the same day. Treating in Taiwan enjoys top level of technology yet costs less than half the price as in Western countries. He added that it is with advantages for Mainland tourists to come to Taiwan for medical treatment in terms of language and communication. Beauty is a subjective concept; if the patient wants to reach the level of 8, neither the level of 7 nor that of 9 is acceptable to him. In Western countries, even through an interpreter it will not be easy to communicate such details.