Desperation, money drive patients abroad

Xue Lingling was impressed by the thoughtful and careful treatment. During her chemotherapy, the doctor detailed the unexpected side-effects and asked her to express her feelings freely. In contrast, when she was doing a magnetic resonance imaging scan in a hospital in China, she was "fixed on the bed with fear". The doctor told her to be motionless, without giving any explanation.

"I was very surprised that the US doctor answered my questions with great patience. If that happened in China, the doctor would have a queue outside the door," Xue says.

In Cai Qiang's view, the top priority is choosing the right doctor and hospital, which requires good knowledge of the medical resources around the world.

When a patient needs a heart stent implant, Cai says, Saint Lucia recommends the Royal Brompton Hospital in the UK, which is famous for dissolvable stents; when a patient with brain tumor needs radiotherapy, it recommends Massachusetts General Hospital in the US, which boasts advanced proton beam therapy.

Many foreign medical institutes are reaching out to the Chinese market. The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (MDACC), a top-ranking cancer research institute and hospital in the United States is one of them.

Martha Coleman, administrative director of MDACC's International Center, says MDACC has received more than 500 Chinese patients in the last five years. She has seen a 40 percent increase each year for the past two years and the number continues to grow.

Coleman welcomes Chinese patients and recommends that patients be better prepared to adjust to the cultural and medical differences.