WHILE most sectors of the Malaysian economy may be flinching from the global economic downturn, medical tourism could emerge relatively unscathed if healthcare providers can leverage on information technology (IT) to upscale their processes and access to the market.

The multi-million ringgit sector, which attracted over 250,000 foreign patients in 2007, is expected to grow between 20 and 30 per cent this year.

Malaysia, with its good hospitals, widely used English and good tourist spots, is well-positioned to draw medical tourists from the West, SAP healthcare director (Asia Pacific and Japan) Andrew Richard David said.

"The current economic situation is a great time for Malaysia's medical tourism as more and more people in the UK and the US are looking for an alternative for good quality and value healthcare," he said in an interview with Business Times in Petaling Jaya recently.

David said Americans are concerned with the high cost of medical procedures while the speed of medical service is important for those in the UK. The fact that Malaysia can offer the same quality medical procedure at one-tenth the cost in the US is already an attractive option for American medical tourists.

For example, a hip surgery that costs about US$125,000 in the US can be done in Malaysia for around US$20,000.

"In the current recession, people may not come for cosmetic surgery but they would come for medical procedures, especially those from the US because they look even more for good value medical care," he said.

David said hospitals in Malaysia have to prepare now to capture these opportunities as the sector is expected to register strong growth from next year onwards.

He said with enterprise-wide software in place such as SAP for healthcare solution portfolio, public and private hospitals will be able to provide effective medical care for patients, right from the first initial interaction with hospitals until after the patients are discharged.

He said the solutions, introduced about 13 years ago, have a strong market in Europe.

SAP healthcare portfolio, which has been installed in over 2,300 organisations around the world, is relatively new in Asia.

Its customers in Asia include National Healthcare Group in Singapore, Ramsay Health in Australia and Medicity in India.

"We are currently talking to a few hospitals in Malaysia," he said, adding that the software will be deployed in hospitals here by this year.

David said it takes six months for hospitals of any size to realise returns on investment from SAP's solution.

SAP healthcare portfolio comprises software that covers different areas of healthcare organisations, namely enterprise resource planning which handles back-office operations; patient administration that helps doctors and nurses to monitor patients' wellness; and clinical application software IS-H*MED.

David said these software help hospitals streamline their healthcare processes, which leads to lower cost, reduced risk of incorrect or lost data, easier data analysis and more time spent on patients.

Hospitals can transfer the efficiency and cost-saving brought about by the solutions to expenditure on patients wellness, he added.

By Hamisah Hamid