Serious on Medical Tourism

The Philippine government seems really serious on promoting the country as a medical tourism destination. As a medical equipment distributor, this news is good. More medical tourists means more premium paying patients means more premium services and yes means more medical equipment.

However, this online news from the Philippine Daily Inquirer caught my attention. Are medical tourists really flocking to greenhills to buy cheap pirated DVDs and fake designer apparel? I somehow feel uncomfortable of hearing this news. What image will the tourist bring home to their countries of the Philippines? I am sure any bad image will also have a negative effect and might dampen our medical tourism campaign. Marketing is a mind game and we do not want medical tourist asking themselves whether the country has fake doctors, do we?

Take this elderly foreigner who recovered quite nicely from a procedure called blepharoplasty or surgery to remove fat and excess skin from the upper and lower eyelids. She was excited to show off her new and “younger” look and shop at the famous tiangge (flea market) in San Juan.

Her flight back to her native land could wait, she said. She wanted to buy some pearls—South Sea and fresh water—fake designer bags and shoes and, of course, pirated DVDs.

But just to show how serious the government is to promote medical tourism, there is even now the first medical tourism congress – a two day event held last November 21-22 (I think). I learned of if just now and missed the opportunity to look into it, but I still feel good knowing about it.

PGMA launches RP's first ever Medical Tourism Congress
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2006 | GOVERNMENT MANAGEMENT


As part of her government’s efforts to push the country as one of the top medical tourism destinations, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo formally launched today the Philippines’ first-ever Medical Tourism Congress, Exposition and Grand Launch (MTCEGL) at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) in Pasay City.

The President, fresh from her successful trip to Vietnam where she attended the 14th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders’ meeting, has always been a staunch supporter of the Philippine Medical Tourism Program (PMTP), saying the Philippines has got what it takes to cash in on the $3 million-a-year global health care market.

The two-day MTCEGL brings to fore the program that hopes to inform and educate the public about the PMTP, specifically its opportunities, potentials, challenges and importance for the economy.

It also aims to encourage medical institutions to apply for accreditation from international agencies such as the Joint Commission International so that they can be accorded the "Gintong Sigla" seal of the PMTP that entails incentives for the institution.

Upon her arrival at the PICC Plenary Hall, the President was welcomed by Philippine Public Private Partnership Chairman Ambassador Cesar Bautista, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, Trade and Industry Secretary and Presidential Committee on Health and Wellness Chairman Peter Favila, Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) Chairperson Lilia de Lima, Philippine Retirement Authority (PRA) Chairman Edgardo Aglipay and Tourism Assistant Secretary Cynthia Carreon.

The President was then treated to an audio-visual presentation launching "Paradise Philippines" as the country brand for PMTP. After the presentation, the President was presented with the symbol of Paradise Philippines in the form of the Waling-waling orchid flower by Bautista. He was assisted by Duque, Favila, Aglipay, De Lima and Carreon.

After the brief ceremonies, the President proceeded to a building adjacent to the PICC where she viewed an exhibit of the various participating sponsors and members.

"Medical tourism is one of the solid niches for the Philippines," the President recently said at her roundtable discussion in Malacanang with Socioeconomic Secretary Romulo Neri and National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC) Chief Domingo Panganiban.

The President noted that the country has the "best doctors, nurses and caregivers in the world . . . the best medical facilities," with the quality of its healthcare system recognized as among the best in the world.

"Cost is competitive and quality is high. Filipino professionals can serve the world right here at home, as we provide more jobs downstream and cut down poverty," she said.

Ranked fifth among Asia’s top healthcare players after Thailand, India, Malaysia and Singapore, the country’s medical tourism program earned $200 million in 2005, the first year of its operation.

(From www.gov.ph)

I also saw that the country now has the Philippine Medical Tourism Program (PMTP), whatever that is, which can be seen online here.

Good news after good news, I believe the local market for medical equipment could only zoom up. We just have to be able to know how to benefit from it.

We are now on the Web!

At last... after 7 years, MEDEV now has a presence on the world wide web (www.medevmedicaldevices.com). I made the design myself (well, yes, the design is not good, I know... no need to tell me) from standard templates.

Well, the site is still work in progress and there are more information that I need to post there... The products section is still incomplete. But this is a nice start. I just hope that I can find the time to improve the site. I wonder what this website's impact on our business be?

And yes, I might post there soon pictures of our office or myself only if it would not drive visitors to the website away!!!

Zoll Good

We recently were appointed to be the only authorized distributor of Zoll products for hospital and medical services markets in the Island of Luzon (Philippines). I feel great because we just came out from a relationship which turned out very bad for us, with Metrax - yes, that very unprofessional company which took our money but did not deliver.

Anyway, although we are not concerned with Metrax now, I can only gloat in comparing the two companies. Whereas Metrax products are mostly unknown in the US, and little known worldwide (except in Germany, I suppose), Zoll declared that their M-Series defibrillator is the number 1 hospital defibrillator in America in 2004. Also, whereas Metrax has gone bankrupt, Zoll declared that they are without debt and they have in fact extra cash enough to buy other companies related to medical emergencies and resuscitation (they recently bought the manufacturer of the AutoPulse). Finally, whereas Metrax's name did not mean anything to defibrillation, Zoll's name came from Dr. Paul M. Zoll, the inventor of cardiac pacing from which came defibrillation (see Zoll's works here)!

I am doubly happy that we now have a very good defibrillator to sell (Zoll's M-Series and the AEDPlus) that can stand up to and has so many technical advantages over our closest ompetitor (Medtronic's Lifepak20 and LifepakCRPlus). At least, something good has happened out of the mess that Metrax did us.

Note: The photo of Dr. Paul M. Zoll, founder of Zoll Medical Corporation is from the Heart Rhythm Foundation website.

SMART BROken?

I am not sure why, but it seems we are quite unlucky this days with our suppliers. Last time, I had one big problem with our defibrillator supplier, METRAX, who did not deliver our order which we paid for well in advance (see this post).

Now, our internet service provider, SMART, is not providing us so "smart" a service after all. Where their advertisements says that SMART BRO is an "Amazing Wireless Broadband" - to us it has become the "Disgusting Useless No Band"! They say it is "Anytime, Always On, Unlimited Internet Access"... to us it is "Sometime On, Sometime Off, Intermittent Internet Access".

We are now just 1-2 months into this SMART BRO service and of course we want out. But then we have to pay the pre-termination fee, which is by the way equivalent to paying for their entire service for 1 year! Grrrr....

As a consolation though, I learned that we are not alone. There are so many other subscribers like me who are having the same problems with SMART BRO. Another blogger (EDERIC) had an excellent post about his experience which reflects ours too. He even had a new logo for SMART BRO which inspired the title of this post (I think he got the logo from another unsatisfied SMART BRO subscriber). Although his logo says it is "amusing", I am not amused, so I rather call it "disgusting". There, other bloggers commented on their same experience which inspired me to write an open letter to SMART on my other blog (PinoySolutions).

So where is this string of bad luck (on our suppliers) coming from? Tsk, tsk.. are we doomed?

Why Service You Trust?

Recently, MEDEV has adapted the slogan "Service You Trust.". This more or less reflects the strategy that we have been doing right from the start when I founded the company. MEDEV's strategy is based on integrity. It is the customer's TRUST that we are after.

In my more than 18 years of work in the medical equipment industry here in the country, I have met all kinds of sales people. Sadly, I can say that majority of them does not know the meaning of integrity. The priority of many sales people is to close the sale, even at the expense of their customer (Win-Lose). They are simply working for the short term. They wanted to get their commissions soon, and there is no need to think of the future.

I see that this attitude is simply handed over to them by the companies they worked for. In the Philippines, medical equipment dealers/companies are usually owned by a person with long sales experience in the industry. These owners are usually the chief sales person of their own company, and they lack sales integrity themselves. Naturally, the win-lose strategy of their leaders is what the sales people will learn.

Surprisingly, even companies with very low integrity in selling their wares achieve success, in the short and even the long term. These is so because those same companies were the exclusive representatives of well known international brands - manufacturers who really do not mind the tactics used by their dealers as long as sales are coming in. Also, there is still quite a huge medical equipment market in the Philippines, and majority of the buying companies (customers) are still in their business infancy stage and does not have formal and effective buying processes. Buyers are unable to weed out the bad suppliers (majority) from the good ones (very few). Most buying criteria are still centered on "known brands" at a "good price" (commoditization).

I therefore question myself regularly whether we are actually doing the right thing. Is integrity a good strategy in a growing yet still immature market? Is integrity important to the customer? Or shall we join the fray and look for ways to get more profit at the customer's expense. Shall we deliver demo or used equipment when we promise brand new equipment? Shall we demo a product, get it approved and deliver a lesser one? Shall we also use the customer's equipment parts to check other customer's equipment without the former knowing? Or shall we continue building the culture of integrity for MEDEV?

I found an article on the web about integrity "Is integrity a sales strategy?". In support for integrity, the article says that integrity saves the customers time.

Life's too short, and business is too busy to deal with people you can't trust.

I think only time will tell if we are too much ahead of our time to count on Integrity as a long term strategy. So far, we have achieved almost 7 years of consistent growth, although less of the growth we wanted to have, with Integrity. And I believe that it is the only way for the business to grow in the future. Let us see some years more where our strategy will bring us.

You can very well expect then that we will continue providing the "Service You Trust".

Would anyone believe METRAX?

Last year, our supplier of defibrillators, METRAX (Primedic), announced that it is coming up soon with a new model of defibrillator - the XD Series. We are excited to sell this new product because its price and features seem to be at par with the competition. Prior to this, we only buy from Metrax the Defi-B, which we sell as a stand-by defibrillator for stress testing (Packaged with our Stress Testing Equipment). They do have other defibrillator systems but are expensive and do not address well the Philippine market.

So we ordered our first demo unit for the XD1. Since deliveries are expected end of 2005, we paid for the unit in advance early December, in hope that the payment process will not cause the delay of the shipment.

In early 2006, we were told that there are delays in the release of the new product, hence a delay in shipment. We were told that the delays will take weeks, 2 weeks probably, but would not take a month. Many weeks has passed and then months and we received no shipment from Metrax. We follow up on our order every now and then and we are constantly assured that we are included in the first shipments which will happen soon. Even the tone of their sales coordinator, Ms. Jasmin Sandrock, in her e-mail seems to be annoyed by our follow ups.

Months went by until March when we asked Metrax to send us a letter explaining the delay which they did. In the meantime, I worry why my e-mails are not answered immediately. It takes three to four follow ups from my side before they reply to my messages. Then an e-mail came from our contact person, Mr. Andreas Roeske, that he is resigning from Metrax. It got me worried more but Mr. Roeske assured me that everything is well and that there are other people to handle my shipment. We call them once in a while to get their assurance that shipment is coming, Oh well yes, we call them because they do not answer our e-mails.

Then by the end of May, we received an email from Metrax saying that they are into insolvency (bankruptcy?) proceedings. If I want my shipment made, I have to pay them a second time?!

Whaaaaaat! I cannot believe what is being told me. A company whose products are designed to save lives is reneging on their commitment to deliver? It seems that the company is continuing its existence but how can they do that. Would anyone trust them after this? Or am I the only victim?

I think Metrax acted in bad faith. It seems to me now that they are indeed making shipments already because suddenly they want me to pay a 2nd time. I am a creditor yet they did not immediately inform me of their insolvency. It took them two weeks to send me the official letter attached to their email. We called on Ms. Sandrock who lied to us that shipments will be made soon even around that day they wrote the insolvency letter. They did not give us the email of the administrator appointed by the courts. They do not give us complete information. Yet, they want us to trust them and pay them the 2nd time.

I cannot understand that anybody will still believe Metrax after this. If you plan to buy anything from Metrax, beware!

Medical Tourism

There is so much talk recently in the Philippines about Medical Tourism as possible additional source of foreign currency income as well as possible solution to the brain drain in the healthcare industry here. I thought medical tourism has gotten big in the Philippines and my mind brighten on the prospects of more hospitals requiring more medical equipment.

However, I was surprised that today's news (Yahoo news) about this topic does not include the Philippines as possible destination to where Europeans or even other Asians can have their medical procedures done at less costs.

Asia's medical tourism industry is expected to generate over 4.4 billion dollars a year by 2012, with India, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and South Korea the top destinations, a leading travel firm said.

The news by the way noted that Bumrungrad International of Thailand, which now controls the Asian Hospital in Alabang, "..offers a full spectrum of surgical services...". No mention was made about Asian Hospital, though.

Bumrungrad International Hospital for example offers a full spectrum of surgical services performed by certified doctors all under one roof.

This could only mean that the Philippines medical tourism industry is still insignificant as far as the world is concerned. Perhaps Bumrungrad could lead the way and set an example to other hospitals how to attract medical tourists. But is the country ready to accept these tourists with all the political noise happening in the country these days?

I just hope our policy makers and politicians look deeply into this opportunity.

MEDEV New Address/Contact Information

This is our new company contact information:

MEDEV Medical Devices Corporation
8428 Dr. A. Santos Ave. (Sucat Road),
Paranaque City, PHILIPPINES
Tel: (63-2) 5463406

Tel/Fax: (63-2) 5420891
abendrinal(at)yahoo(dot)com