Jaunted - Tag: Medical Travel

Bangkok: Travel Confessions: 'I Was a Dental Tourist in Thailand'

JetSetCD — 2011-10-11T14:54:33-05:00

And now, a first-person ~~confession~~ account of medical tourism:

I was in Thailand with a broken tooth. Granted, it had been broken for a while after chomping on some blackcurrant gummies in London, of all things. And then, while in Bangkok, I broke another one chewing blueberry gum. What was happening to my mouth? But more importantly, could I get this all fixed here for a fraction of what it'd cost me back in the States? Thailand is growing famous as a destination for dental tourism and without a dental plan, my US dentist was quoting well into four digits for a crown, so I decided to give it a go.

While researching and stopping into clinics around the city, the first warning I got was not to necessarily trust the Thai dentist clinics that rank highest in Google Search. Duh. The second was not to ask a local for a recommendation as that's about as trustworthy as the Google Search thing. Oh well, I went against the latter warning and sought advice from a local I trusted and she named The Dentist Clinic by the upscale Siam Paragon mall. Bingo.

Ryanair Handles Mid-Flight Passenger Heart Attack Exactly How You Imagine

Omri — 2011-08-05T14:32:41-05:00

Any time Ryanair spokespeople begin to talk about following EU airline regulations—and by "following EU airline regulations" they mean "doing the absolute minimum as required by law"—you know that something has gone wildly awry.

Last time we saw them being defensive like this was last year, after they stranded Canary Island-bound passengers on the entirely wrong island in the midst of a thunderstorm. The airline's excuse? That according to EU regulations they were, in terms of physical distance, close enough.

So with Ryanair spokesperson Stephen McNamara telling a Swedish newspaper that flight attendants handled a medical situation according to EU requirements, you know that the story is going to be good. And by good we mean very, awesomely bad.

Scalpels and Seasickness: A Cruise Ship's Doctor Deals With It All

JetSetCD — 2011-07-18T13:30:28-05:00

When you think about the people who make a cruise ship run, who comes to mind? The captain...maybe the head chef and cruise director, right? Well, with about 1,000 crew onboard Cunard's Queen Victoria, there's so many others in the shadows, all responsible for making your vacation an awesome one. And over the next two weeks, we'd like to introduce you to them.

Last week we gave you exclusive peeks into the (somewhat) secret lives of a ship's officer, a "gentleman dance host," and the ships' acupuncturist. Now it's time to get technical with Dr. Shaun, a Medical Officer onboard the Queen Victoria.

Not feeling so well on your cruise? No problem—since down below the theatre, below the bars and below even the cheapest cabins sits the Queen Victoria's full Medical Center, with its team of doctors and nurses in officer's whites ready to treat everything from your minor case of mal de mer up to serious, surgical matters.

One of the smart team is Dr. Shaun, a South African who has taken his medical training and interest in sports medicine to the high seas. He treats both passengers and crew, a easy feat considering how well-equipped the Medical Center is with two clinics, private recovery rooms (with portholes!) and heavy gear like portable X-ray machines and yes—Defibrillators.

Being an Acupuncturist on a Cruise Ship is So Much More Than Sticking Pins in People

juliab — 2011-07-15T14:43:02-05:00

Now that you're fully acquainted with a ship's officer and a pro dancer, it's time to indulge a bit with Justin Lane, Doctor of Chinese Medicine and the Queen Victoria's resident Acupuncturist.

Originally from San Francisco, Justin’s been fully qualified to stick needles in people for just two years, but he’s been into acupuncture for far longer than that. Growing up, he suffered from asthma and allergies; where Western medicine failed to help, acupuncture did the job. “Chinese medicine made a profound difference to my life,” he says. So when his childhood dream of becoming an airline pilot fell through, he decided to help others the way he’d been helped. After his undergrad degree (Psychology in San Fran, no less) he headed down to the Pacific College of Oriental Medicine at San Diego for four years of training.

As Cunard is a British ship, the majority of passengers are English, which doesn’t always bode well for Justin, since he reckons that not only are Americans more open to trying new therapies and into spa-ing in general, but also that, because of the (glorious) NHS, the Brits aren’t used to paying for healthcare.

Alabama: Help Paul Walker Reach Out to Disaster Victims Worldwide and Travel for Free

cmb — 2011-05-04T15:27:10-05:00

This week, Fast Five's Paul Walker is headed to Alabama to help victims of the recent tornadoes, and you can help too.

Walker has traveled around the world helping those in need after natural disasters on behalf of the non-profit Reach Out Worldwide. Reach Out Worldwide, which is a network trained volunteers who act as first responders in the United States and abroad, is always looking for volunteers to help out on their next trip.

Osaka: Japan is Building a Medical Tourism Mecca in Osaka

Jennifer Kester — 2011-01-26T09:36:14-05:00

Japan's obviously been trying to brainstorm ways to drum up more tourists. Plan A, the "Welcome to Japan bra" that greets tourists in three languages, must not be working, because it's resorting to plan B: making Osaka a medical tourism center.

The country adopted a new growth strategy in June that includes promoting medical tourism. The Raffles Medical Group of Singapore, which will set up shop in Osaka, just might be the botox shot the city needed to become a top medical tourism destination.

San Francisco: Yelp's iPhone App Can Help You Score Some Good Weed

JetSetCD — 2010-10-14T09:30:03-05:00

It might not be Amsterdam, but San Francisco is peppered with Cannabis Clinics...for medical purposes, of course. These are legitimate business in California and so why shouldn't they get listed like any other business is—on Yelp? As a matter of fact they are, a discovery we recently made while digging deeper into our Yelp iPhone app, where a category specifically for "Cannabis Clinics/Evaluations resides.

Searching around us in New York it finds nothing, but going to the other side of the country changes all of that. What's more is that Yelp reviewers actually take reviewing their favorite Cannabis clinics seriously. We've even learned a new word from this category: "budtender."