Backed by Taiwan`s competitive medical care industry, a growing number of local medical institutions and enterprises are eyeing the huge cross-Taiwan Strait medical care-cum-tourism market, which is especially promising in view of the warming of relations between Taiwan and mainland China.

Following the liberalization of travel across the Taiwan Strait, Chinese tourists are flocking to the island in numbers that are expected to top 900,000 this year and exceed the 1 million mark in 2010. This will put China ahead of Japan as the largest source of foreign visitors to Taiwan. Many of those Chinese visitors are likely to undergo medical treatment on the island, including treatment of chronic diseases, plastic surgery, laser-radiation treatment for beauty care, and physical examinations during their stay on the island to take advantage of the advanced techniques/facilities and relatively low cost of local medical procedures. A complete physical examination, for instance, costs only NT$15,000 (US$460, at NT$32.5:US$1) in Taiwan, compared with NT$60,000 (US$1,846) in the U.S. and NT$135,000 (US$4,154) in the United Kingdom.

This low cost is coupled with advanced medical-care standards, thanks to the seven years of education and continuous follow-up study and training to which local doctors are subjected, positioning them among the elite of society. The local medical industry enjoys a position of global leadership in many fields, including plastic surgery and organ transplants.

In fact, several medical-tourism groups from China have visited Taiwan this year, mainly to combine tourism with physical checkups and beauty-care treatment, including physical examination groups from Guiangzhou and Beijing as well as a Yangzhou hot spring/physical checkup/beauty-care group.

Many large hospitals and enterprises have jumped into the fray for this huge market potential. Scores of local medical institutions have joined the "Taiwan medical-care internationalization program" that is being pushed by the Cabinet-level Department of Health.
One leading participant is Taipei Veterans General Hospital, which is furnished with an independent physical checkup center and a medical beauty treatment center. The former now provides complete physical checkups to over 15,000 persons a year, while the latter offers traditional plastic surgery, laser-radiation treatment, and the injection of dostridum botulinum and hyaluronic acid. One percent of the hospital`s patients are not Taiwan residents, including foreigners, overseas Chinese, and mainland Chinese.
Some local entrepreneurs have invested in the establishment of professional physical-checkup institutions aimed mainly at the market for wealthy patients from across the Taiwan Strait. The MJ Health Screening Center is the local leader in this sector.

(by Philip Liu)