This presentation is made as part of student project at Stanford University, Technology Entrepreneurship Course

1. TalkMedic
A global healthcare resource that helps you find the
perfect doctor or dentist and save on your medical
and dental fees
Stanford University, Technology Entrepreneurship Project

2. Medical Tourism
● One of the fastest growing industries worldwide
● Expected to generate over US$40 billion
● Over 780 million tourists located across 96 different
countries
● Savings on medical and dental costs abroad can range
from 30 and 80 percent
● Industry growth rate of between 15 and 20 percent
annually
* figures range depending on sources

3. The (Initial) Idea
Medical and dental tourism directory that helps patients
plan for healthcare travel abroad and also review and
compare providers locally
Directory includes:
● Detailed user-generated reviews of doctors,
hospitals/clinics, dentists, and possibly medical
tourism companies throughout the world
● Ability to search by country, specialty and treatment
option
● Cost and accreditation details for hospitals and
providers
● Contact form for providers in order to enable lead
generation and collect referral fees

4. Customer Research

5. Patient Interviews

6. Patient Surveys
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/KYQK22D
Questions:
- Basic demographics
- Problems faced in finding healthcare provider
- Criteria in choosing healthcare provider, hospital or
clinic
- Propensity of and concern in pursuing health travel
- Desired features of a healthcare review site

7. Patient Survey - Demographic
Results
- 12 survey respondents - 75% were male and 25%
were female
- Majority of survey respondents (75%) were in the
30-39 age group while the rest (25%) were 20-29
- 50% of survey respondents currently live in the
United States and the remainder live in India,
the UK, and Greece
- 42% of survey respondents were born in India, 17%
were born in the US, and the remainder were born
in Greece, Saudi Arabia, and Tanzania

8. Patient Survey - Open-Ended
Question Results
- Survey respondents listed the following as major
barriers in finding quality medical or dental
care: cost/affordability, waiting time (UK)
insurance limitations, difficulty in finding
quality providers with necessary expertise,
and reliance on word of mouth recommendations to
find good healthcare
- The most important criteria for selecting a doctor or
dentist included: credentials/training/education,
bedside manner, reputation, cost, success rate, time
spent with patient and experience in teaching specific
condition

9. Patient Survey - Open-Ended
Question Results
- The most important criteria for selecting a hospital or
clinic included: reputation, track record of good
outcomes, cost/affordability, insurance coverage,
location, cleanliness, specialist availability, access
to state of the art technology, and status as a
teaching/research hospital

10. Patient Survey - Likelihood of
Medical Travel and References
- 25% of respondents were extremely likely or very likely
to consider seeking medical or dental care abroad
- 33.33% of respondents were moderately likely to consider
traveling to another country for medical or dental care
- 41.6% of respondents were somewhat likely or not at all
likely to consider seeking medical or dental care abroad
- Survey respondents would find a doctor or dentist abroad
by: looking for reviews online, consulting medical
tourism companies, reading medical travel books,
searching for internationally accredited hospitals, &
obtaining a referral from family, a doctor or friend.
l

11. Patient Survey - Medical Travel
Concerns
- Survey respondents would be most concerned about the
following if they were to seek medical or dental care
abroad: quality of care (whether providers meet US
standards), final outcome of procedure,
communication/cultural barriers, cleanliness,
cost/affordability of treatment and travel, validity of
online medical and dental reviews, and absence of
family and support abroad.

12. Patient Survey - Preferred Directory
Features
- Respondents felt that the following three features
would be most useful for TalkMedic users:
#1 - Discussion forum for travelers seeking care in
other countries
#2 - Cost details for specific treatments by doctor or
dentist and by country
#3 - Reviews for medical tourism companies
- The following features were less desirable but still
considered to be moderately useful: top doctors and
dentists by country, ratings for desirability of
destination for medical travel, and ratings for specific
treatments by country.

13. Overall Findings
- Patients generally prefer local healthcare
- Patients read doctor reviews, even for local
doctors
- Patients pursue healthcare travel for 3 main
reasons: lower cost, shorter wait, and higher
quality care
- Cost and quality of care are main concerns for
patients

14. Overall Findings
- If non-life threatening/cosmetic procedures,
patients prefer to club travel & treatments
- The reputation of a medical destination also
becomes a deciding factor

15. "... the growth of the medical
tourism industry relies on the
failures of domestic health
systems."
- exorbitant medical fee
- long wait
- unreliable medical service

16. New Solution

17. TalkMedic
Healthcare review directory
Global healthcare provider review directory
to help patients
find,
rate,
read reviews, and
contact
doctors, dentists, clinics, and hospitals

18. TalkMedic
Healthcare review directory
- Patient reviews of global healthcare providers
- Easy search for providers, locally and globally
- Easy access to contact healthcare providers
- Discussion forum for medical travelers
- Detailed, user-generated cost information for procedures
by doctor or dentist and by country
- Patient-submitted reviews of medical tourism companies

19. TalkMedic
Healthcare review directory
Internet Population
2.4 Billion (World)
Number of Doctor Visits per year
0.7 per capita(Cambodia)
4 per capita(United States)
13 per capita(Japan)
Number of Doctor Visits in 1 year
1.1 Billion (United States)

20. TalkMedic
Healthcare review directory
Read online reviews of healthcare providers
21 percent (United States)
Posted online reviews of healthcare providers
3 percent (United States)

21. TalkMedic
Healthcare review directory
Market Assumptions
Number of Doctor Visits in 1 year
10 Billion (Internet Connected - World)
Read online reviews of healthcare providers
10 percent (Internet Connected - World)
Posted online reviews of healthcare providers
1 percent (Internet Connected - World)
>>> 1 Billion Searches Yearly <<<

22. TalkMedic
Healthcare review directory
Targeted Market Size
10% of online searches for healthcare provider
100 million visits per year
10% initiate contact with provider via TalkMedic
10 million generated leads per year
$10 per lead
$100 million revenue per year

23. Actualizing global competition in
healthcare provider industry, to
encourage better efficiency in
developed world and greater
service quality in developing
world
TalkMedic
Healthcare review directory

24. References
http://ac.els-cdn.com/S026151771200088X/1-s2.0-S026151771200088X-main.pdf?_tid=66787e24-
d650-11e2-931b-00000aacb360&acdnat=1371365338_5f4dafb454958d5603b0771934633a37
http://www.humanosphere.org/2013/04/outsourcing-health-care-the-global-explosion-of-
medical-tourism/
http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/9789264183902-en/03/02/index.html;
jsessionid=2qf8569uh06k.x-oecd-live-02?
contentType=&itemId=/content/chapter/9789264183902-25-
en&containerItemId=/content/serial/23054964&accessItemIds=/content/book/9789264183902-
en&mimeType=text/html
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/docvisit.htm
http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm
http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2013/Health-online/Summary-of-Findings.aspx