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Moving Towards The Best Health Care Travel Experience In Malaysia

Moving Towards The Best Health Care Travel Experience In Malaysia

Among the reasons why Malaysia is such a popular medical tourism destination is that it constantly keeps up with the latest breakthroughs in medical technology.

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Malaysia is well known as a popular tourist destination for its natural, cultural and historical destinations, but did you know Malaysia is also recognised as a fledgling hub for medical tourism? 

If the term “medical tourism” makes you think of international tourists taking a guided tour of our local and private hospitals, you might want to know that that is not the case.

In fact, medical tourism actually refers to travellers from abroad who come to Malaysia to receive medical treatment.

The Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council (MHTC) revealed that Malaysia had received a total of 800,000 healthcare travellers back in 2022.

MHTC chief executive officer Mohd Daud Mohd Arif said since the reopening of the borders on April 1 last year, the number of health tourists (HTo) seeking treatment in Malaysia for the second quarter (67,813) of 2022 grew almost seven-fold compared to the first quarter (10,178) of the year.

TRP photo by Shivani Supramani

“Based on the data collected, we found that the revenue made was more than RM1.2 billion, as of data collection in February 2023.”

Mohd Daud Mohd Arif, CEO of Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council (MHTC)

He added that during the lockdowns, MHTC was the first to establish a medical travel bubble to bring in international patients in critical condition for treatment. 

“Through our brand campaign of Malaysia Healthcare Marvel, we were able to ensure that critical patients were still able to come to Malaysia for their treatments. With all this going on, we were also able to give full focus and concentration on the health and wellbeing of our fellow Malaysians during that period of time.”

Mohd Daud Mohd Arif, CEO of Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council (MHTC)

Additionally, part of the reason why Malaysia is such a popular medical tourism destination is that it constantly keeps up with the latest breakthroughs in medical technology. 

One such example is the National Heart Institute’s (IJN) successful implantation of the Micra AV pacemaker, used to treat irregular heartbeats, in 2020.

Malaysia has always held a reputable history in cardiology treatment services as well as gaining the title of being the Fertility Hub of Asia.

According to MHTC records, Malaysian fertility institutions report high success rates such as 82.9% through transfer of a single good graded euploid blastocyst, and 68% in embryo transfers for women above 41 years of age with Preimplantation Genetic Testing (PGT).

Besides giving hope to aspiring parents, Malaysia is also known as the Hepatitis C Treatment Hub of Asia, being the first country in the world to receive conditional approval for Ravidasvir in combination with Sofosbuvir to treat Hepatitis C. 

Other popular sectors include the oncology sector as well as the dental and oral sectors.

Mohd Daud also noted that MHTC is working on developing a flagship medical tourism hospital programme.

“This initiative will establish Malaysia as a globally renowned icon for health care travel delivering exceptional end-to-end patient experiences anchored on outcome-based medical service excellence and best practices.”

Mohd Daud Mohd Arif, CEO of Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council (MHTC)

The programme has three aspirations: service excellence, medical excellence, and international branding.

The programme aims to recognise selected private hospitals to be Malaysia’s Flagship Medical Tourism Hospital, on par with renowned international hospitals, and to elevate the hospital’s profile to become an icon of healthcare travel, propelling Malaysia’s profile in the global health care travel landscape.


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