A 32-member tour group from Beijing is in Taiwan for health checks, spa treatments and sightseeing, making it the second Chinese group to visit Taiwan for medical tourism since last month.
NeoStem, Inc. (NBS), a company built on collection and storage of adult stem cells, signed an exclusive 10-year agreement with Enhance BioMedical Holdings Limited of Shanghai. Using NeoStem developed techniques, Enhance will build a stem cell collection and treatment network. The facilities are targeted for Shanghai, Taiwan, and the provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Anhui and Jiangxi.
Jackson Ling, the CEO of Enhance BioMedical Holdings’ parent company, put $5 million into NeoStem’s recent $11 million private placement. Enhance Holding Corporation is a multinational conglomerate with interests that include healthcare.
In Taipei, Taiwan, Enhance BioMedical operates the Anti-Aging and Prevention Medical Center. It is focused on stem cell research and development and anti-aging therapies. Enhance expects to open a second center in Shanghai in the Spring of 2010, targeting high net worth individuals.
Through Enhance, NeoStem is making good on its medical tourism initiative. NeoStem wants to provide medical therapies, especially stem cell services, in China for people who cannot receive the services in their own countries
In exchange for a six figure technical assistance fee, NeoStem will train Enhance BioMedical staff in its proprietary techniques. NeoStem will also receive a royalty on gross revenues and may receive other fees in connection with helping to launch the network. Specific details of the fee arrangement were not disclosed.
NeoStem's platform provides the infrastructure, methods and systems that allow adults to have their stem cells collected and banked in a minimally invasive process.
In a statement, Jackson Ling, CEO of Enhance, positioned the centers as a service for China’s 100 million wealthy who seek anti-aging services, following the program of the already existing Taiwan center.
NeoStem has recently acquired Shandong New Medicine Research Institute, which provides regenerative medical therapies in China. NeoStem is also developing its VSEL (very small embryonic-like stem cells) technology, which was licensed from the University of Louisville.
Rim Asia was another major participant in NeoStem’s $11 million capital raise, contributing $5 million.
Science Daily (Apr. 23, 2009) — The globalization of health care and the growth of “transplant tourism” (traveling abroad to purchase donor organs and undergo organ transplantation) have outpaced the implementation of internationally accepted ethical standards for procurement of organs for transplantation.
A new article appearing in Clinical Transplantation finds that both U.S. and foreign transplant physicians exNewsed serious concern about organ procurement practices in China, and that this concern influenced their patient care decisions. The study is the first to assess how the perceptions of healthcare providers on transplant tourism may influence domestic patient care decisions.
Globalization of medical and surgical technology has increased the capacity for countries worldwide to perform organ transplantation. Unfortunately, dramatic geographic variation in the availability of organs for transplantation and a parallel discrepancy in financial resources for healthcare have increasingly led desperate patients to transplant tourism. Organ procurement in China has been especially criticized for its reliance on executed prisoners as donors.
An anonymous case-based questionnaire was used to survey a sample of healthcare professionals with affiliations to hepatology and transplantation professional societies. A strong majority believed procurement practices were ethically sound in the U.S. and Europe, but only 4 percent believed that procurement practices were ethically sound in China.
The majority of doctors surveyed said that they would provide post-transplantation care for patients who underwent liver transplantation at another domestic center, in a foreign country or in China. However, respondents who suspected unethical procurement practices in China were more reluctant to do so.
The practice of transplant tourism has been decried by numerous national and international healthcare organizations. These organizations cite serious concerns about clandestine international brokers, surreptitious payment, coercion of organ donors (and/ or donor families) and substandard medical and surgical practices that may lead to lower success rates and higher risk for transmission of infectious disease.
International ethical guidelines exist to ensure that the donation of organs is voluntary, both in life and after death. Not all countries adhere to these ethical guidelines. When traveling from one country to another country for organ transplant surgery, patients risk using an organ obtained in an unsafe or unethical manner.
In 2005, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported the transplantation of 66,000 kidneys, 21,000 livers and 6,000 hearts. Approximately 10 percent of these procedures occurred via transplant tourism. Leading destination countries for transplant tourism include China, India, the Philippines and Pakistan. The number of organ transplant procedures in China is surpassed only by the U.S. According to the WHO, in 2005 China had 348 transplant centers, which performed 8,204 kidney and 3,493 liver transplantations.
Transplant tourism to China has been isolated as particularly controversial. Organ procurement from executed prisoners in China has been reported by the U.S. Department of State, non-governmental investigative reports and in medical literature. These reports indicate that over 95 percent of organ donors in China are prisoners. China’s use of prisoners, particularly those slated for execution, represents the use of a vulnerable population that is particularly susceptible to coercion. For this reason, both live and deceased donor organ procurement from prisoners violates U.S. professional guidelines and international standards ratified by the World Medical Association Statement on Human Organ Donation and Transplantation.
“Physicians caring for patients in need of organ transplantation must balance the duty to the individual patient vs. the duty to society,” says Dr. Scott Biggins of the University of California San Francisco, lead author of the study. Acting as patient advocates, most transplant professionals were not opposed to patients seeking transplantation at alternative centers to shorten waiting times. Yet, respondents who suspected unethical organ procurement practices in China would discourage patients from transplant tourism to China.
“We aim to raise awareness of the need for adherence to international accepted ethical standards for procurement of organs and regulation of transplant tourism by international regulatory and credentialing bodies,” says Biggins.
Journal reference:
1. Scott W. Biggins et al. Transplant tourism to China: the impact on domestic patient-care decisions. Clinical Transplantation, Published Online 12 Jan 2009 DOI: 10.1111/j.1399-0012.2008.00949.x
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MARSHALLTOWN, Iowa, Feb 26, 2009 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- China Connection Global Healthcare (CCGH), a pioneering leader in destination healthcare, announced the Fitness and Culture Experience for Teens, an obesity-intervention plan designed to address the social, environmental and individual determinants of the disease. The eight week summer program, in coordination with China's Aimin Hospital, will offer 40 US high school students and 10 of their Chinese peers an international wellness experience integrating diet, exercise and traditional Chinese medicine to achieve significant weight-loss. In addition, participants will experience the culture of one of the world's oldest societies and fastest growing economies. The camp will be held in Tianjin, China, June 10 through August 10, 2009.
The Centers for Disease Control reports that one in six American children is overweight or obese, a rate that has tripled during the last 20 years. Children and adolescents are developing obesity-related diseases, such as type 2 diabetes, that were once only seen in adults. A new study by the World Cancer Research Fund reports that 34 percent of all cancer cases in America could be prevented simply by people eating better, exercising more and maintaining healthier weights. CCGH is the only destination healthcare company focused on addressing obesity in teens.
"We are passionate about the Fitness and Culture Experience being a catalyst in changing the lives of these young people," said Ruth Lycke, CEO, CCGH. "This group will reshape their bodies and expand their awareness of the world and its people in a unique way. We are thrilled to be promoting healthy self-acceptance and self-esteem through a program in which they're assured success."
The Fitness and Culture Experience is part of the company's Winners in Life initiative through which 2008 participant Alonzo Bland lost over 300 pounds, without the use of bariatric surgery during his nine month stay in China. Teen participants in the program can expect to lose 20 - 25 pounds per month under strict, medical supervision.
CCGH is growing the program through a grassroots approach to local sponsorships and is hiring from the ranks of the highly skilled, unemployed in each city. Thirty field representatives in 30 cities across the country will assist CCGH in selecting participants and sponsors from the communities in which they live. The goal is to reach kids who need help the most and ensure no deserving teen is left behind as a result of his or her family's financial situation.
"The Fitness and Culture Experience encourages implementation of small, gradual and targeted changes that will have a lasting impact. We are empowering this group with the tools and resources necessary to make permanent changes that will lead to long and healthy lives," said Lycke.
For a list of cities or more information on the Fitness and Culture Experience or China Connection Global Healthcare, visit http://www.chinaconnection.cc/.
About China Connection Global Healthcare: China Connection Global Healthcare, a pioneering leader in destination healthcare, arranges premier medical care at affordable costs for individuals, employer groups and insurance companies. China Connection enables its clients to receive Western and traditional Chinese medical care through a network of world renowned, accredited hospitals at rates far less than those charged in America. Since 2006, China has assisted hundreds of people from the US, Canada, the UK, India, Australia and Japan in finding the care they needed.
About Aimin Weight Reduction Hospital: Aimin Weight Reduction Hospital is one of the world's leading weight loss facilities. Using the Shi method, Aimin combines diet, exercise and Traditional Chinese Medicine for delivered results. Aimin, which means "love of people," assists its clients in renewing their lives and helping them to achieve breakthroughs in weight and fat reduction for a new and healthy lifestyle.
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