NEWSROOM

Turkey, which is the fourth most preferred country in the world in terms of the number of visitors in health tourism, has rapidly digitized itself with the Covid-19 pandemic. While online physician counseling in health tourism was reflected in the figures, hundreds of foreign patients received online counseling from Turkish physicians during the pandemic.

*** This release is originally published in Turkish.
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ISTANBUL (TR) - Turkey is among the world's most important countries in health tourism. Especially prominent with specialist doctors, 1.5 million foreign patients came to Turkey from abroad in 2019, with a total revenue of 6 billion dollars. With the COVID-19 pandemic, the travel restrictions has disrupted health tourism around the world. Italy, Spain and other European countries, widely criticised for weaknesses in the health system during the pandemic, have lost the confidence of their new normal health tourists, while Turkey has strengthened its infrastructure with successive city hospitals and emergency hospitals. Patients who were unable to come to Turkey during the pandemic but continued to receive health counseling using online tools.

Health tourism is digitalizing

Although health tourism has been hampered worldwide due to travel restrictions during the coronavirus, digital solutions developed in Turkey offer hope for the coming process. Ask2doctor.com, which enables specialists and patients to interact, enables international patients to meet with doctors and receive treatment and recommendations. Stating that many patients from abroad during the pandemic consulted their doctors with this method, ask2doctor.com CEO Dr. Bilgehan Mehmet Yuksel said, “Follow-up and examinations of our patients who returned to their country after receiving treatment in Turkey took place through these platforms. In addition, due to health and aesthetic problems, many foreigners made reservations for the normalization period by communicating their demands through this platform. In health tourism, we see that Turkey will double its advantage due to the existing situation with digitalization.”

Turkish doctors will support all over the world

Stating that with the project implemented by İncir Software, anyone experiencing health problems in any country in the world can reach experienced doctors in Turkey,  Assoc. Dr. Mehmet Bilgehan Yüksel said, “The patient can easily meet with professionals who are specialized in the field of health problems on the Internet and receive health counseling services. In this way, the patient reaches the correct information about the solution of the health problem before coming to our country, and as a result, more health tourists come to our country is provided. Especially during the Coronavirus pandemic, we aimed to ensure that foreigners who cannot come to our country can easily access quality health care and to maximize international awareness about quality health care offered in our country.”