This is the Healthcare Marketplace Specialization, Healthcare Marketplace Overview. I'm Steve Parente, and this is module 5.1.1 the Globalization of the Medical Industry. So, when we think about this notion of a giant global worldwide medical industry, we need to think about two key premises. The first is that human disease and healthcare needs are not restricted within national boundaries, they're clearly across the globe. And then access, delivery of care is a fundamental necessity for all human beings. Pretty much, that's unequivocal no matter what your political party. Even creativity is also not restricted within national boundaries and the development of care can occur anywhere around the globe as well. So when we think about getting healthcare, one of the conventional wisdom is that we're trying to the best that money can buy. As a result, we find many wealthy foreign patients that are coming from the Middle East, Europe, Latin America, Caribbean, traveling to the US. For the best care that money can buy, they paid cash up front for United States surgery and routine checkups. Many US hospitals are both catering to and profiting from wealthy foreign patients. You see a place like Mayo Clinic, Johns Hopkins University, MD Anderson in Texas all doing this type of thing, and also the Cleveland Clinic. Large medical centers offer concierge services. We cater to traveling families, whether it be banking, dining, shopping desires. John Hopkins Medicine International, for example, has full time, 50 full-time and 45 on-call interpreters. Mayo Clinic, a little smaller, 38 full-time and 25 on-call employees. Cleveland Clinic, 35 staff interpreters. Texas Medical Center, 10 full-time folks and 25 bilingual staffers. So this is just in 2006. The scope of this has gotten much bigger since then. So, when we think about the notion of medical tourism, it's a different concept. Globalization is where you can pretty much get your care wherever you want. But increasingly, we're finding nations such as Thailand, India, Taiwan, are pursuing this medical tourism strategy, where it's actually a form of economic development. So in this instance, Americans can travel to these countries for surgery as varied as hip replacement, heart bypass, plastic surgery, for a fraction of what similar costs that we pay in the United States. These self-paying Americans are sure to find these arrangements attractive particularly if they are going more into consumer-driven health plan as argued by Greg Scandlen in Health Affairs in 2005. And essentially, we're finding that informed and motivated consumers, and those also of resources can have an impact on the entire medical system if possible, walk with their feet to get the care that they need. This concludes this lecture, focusing on the introduction to the global market place in healthcare.