David V. Quist
Appearances
Today, Explained
Turkey with the good hair
Also, deaf tourism, people traveling to either in the United States, certain states that allow doctor assisted suicide, or people that go internationally to places like Switzerland. also including gender change or gender reassignment surgery. Some of the best surgeons in the world are located in the country of Iran.
Today, Explained
Turkey with the good hair
It's a really interesting and controversial topic. So it's illegal to be gay in Iran, and it's sometimes punishable by death. However, if you were to undergo gender reassignment surgery, it is legal to be trans. And so many of the surgeons in Iran actually ended up helping people
Today, Explained
Turkey with the good hair
with these transitions and they became some of the most successful and competent surgeons on this surgery in the world. So because of that, because of this expertise that grew within the country, again, because people felt this pressure to get these gender reassignment surgeries in the country, People from around the world travel to Iran, a religious theocracy, to be able to get the surgeries.
Today, Explained
Turkey with the good hair
That's correct. People are wanting the value equation in healthcare, which means they want the healthcare they want at the price that they want, at the time that they want, where they want. It tends to be that both affluent people that have disposable income, the wealthy, So you're saying this is something that rich people do, certainly, but it's also something that poor people do. Yes.
Today, Explained
Turkey with the good hair
Yeah, it's really fascinating. So where I'm at here in South Texas, we're very familiar with the trend because in the Rio Grande Valley, which is on the southern border of Texas with the northern border of Mexico, we have some of the poorest counties in all of Texas. And we also have a shortage of particularly primary care physicians there.
Today, Explained
Turkey with the good hair
in those regions and so these are some of the the poorest and less economically well-off people in all of the united states and they travel frequently into mexico for access to pharmaceuticals at the pharmacy for dental and also for medical care and it's very common so that that tends to, if you will, show this consumerism that's going on.
Today, Explained
Turkey with the good hair
Again, you can understand it with the wealthy because they're looking for perhaps some of the best care on the planet. But when you look at people that are essentially impoverished or in poverty situations, that they're traveling as well.
Today, Explained
Turkey with the good hair
So we had a situation a little over a year ago now where a group of people drove into Texas and then drove across the border into Mexico.
Today, Explained
Turkey with the good hair
And so that shows you, if you will, the possible safety and security issues of going into a foreign country. We find from some data, for example, the CDC looked at data from Americans in 2016, and they found that the overall self-reported bad outcomes that occurred from the actual surgery itself were about 5%, which is actually reasonable depending on the type of procedure. But
Today, Explained
Turkey with the good hair
There are people that travel internationally and in the past have included people of wealth and affluence that could choose any healthcare they wanted in the United States. Kobe Bryant traveled to Germany.
Today, Explained
Turkey with the good hair
Yes. Yeah. Alex Rodriguez, when he was with the New York Janchies, traveled. Recently, Kirk Cousins traveled to the Caribbean. And you see probably a lot of Instagram influencers that have traveled to foreign countries to get access to cosmetic surgery.
Today, Explained
Turkey with the good hair
So it's a very large industry. When you look at people traveling domestically, it's very large. And then when you look at the international, when you include health, wellness, dental, cosmetic surgery, all the things that people are traveling for... It's truly hundreds of billions of dollars, it's possibly a one trillion dollar industry worldwide. Interestingly, it's also a very ancient trend.
Today, Explained
Turkey with the good hair
So, for example, when I was helping the Egyptian government by training some Egyptian physicians and hospitals on how to receive international patients, I went on a Nile cruise is what they provided as the compensation for doing this training. And on the way back from Ashwan up to Cairo, the tour guide had to stop at an ancient temple. And on the temple wall, there was a formulary saying,
Today, Explained
Turkey with the good hair
for these procedures and these potentially medications that were given by the temple priest to people. And it was well known at that time that throughout the world, people would come to Egypt to get access to some of the best medicine in the world. So not only is it a very ancient trend, but it appears to be a trend that keeps coming back over and over again.
Today, Explained
Turkey with the good hair
Absolutely, yeah. We look at a variety of, if you will, kind of patient consumerism that's occurring throughout the world, not only traveling for cosmetic surgery, but traveling for fertility treatments, traveling for surrogacy.
Today, Explained
Turkey with the good hair
Speaking of that, been in the news here recently, which is birth tourism, which is people going to other countries, for example, people from Latin America coming into the United States. to have children in the US so they have dual citizenship. Also, the idea of pharmacy tourism, which we see, for example, Americans purchasing pharmaceuticals in Canada.